New York’s race to the bottom

Today’s editorial: The state bungled the Race to the Top grant application. It should learn from its mistakes and try again.

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There’s a classic message that grown-ups strive to teach children: It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.

In a competition as fierce as the Race to the Top, a $4.35 billion federal education grant program, we accept that there will be winners and losers. What is unacceptable is how New York has played the game so far. Which is, in a word, poorly.

With New York ranking 15th among 16 finalists, Governor Paterson, the Legislature’s Democratic leaders and the state’s education establishment — including teachers unions and charter school advocates — have only themselves to blame. The state’s application was marred by problems that were mostly avoidable — Mr. Paterson’s last-minute handling of the application, the failure of the governor, lawmakers, teachers unions and charter school proponents to settle their differences and the inability of the state and the unions to forge a common vision for reform.

The loss of such a potential windfall — an estimated $500 million to $700 million — can’t be overstated. New York next year may cut as much as $1.4 billion in school aid to balance the budget. With enormous citizen pressure not to raise property taxes, school districts are weighing layoffs, program cuts and school closings. This loss cries out for more than an “Oh, well” from state leaders.

Federal evaluators actually found New York’s application impressive in many ways. The state, however, lost substantial points for not effectively using the voluminous test data it collects. But it was also because of the very issues on which state leaders, lawmakers and educators can’t seem to agree that the state lost this grant.

The governor, for example, proposed to raise the state cap of 200 charter schools to 460. Democratic legislative leaders wanted a limit of 400. They might have found a middle ground, if the governor hadn’t proposed this at the last minute in January. In the end, the state kept the current cap, which reviewers found too low.

Raising the cap, to be sure, is a complex issue. The largest teachers union, New York State United Teachers, rightly demands that charter school finances be as transparent as those of regular public schools. The state also needs to insure that communities aren’t inundated by too many charters, as Albany has experienced.

But teachers unions must bend, too. They must accept that charters are here to stay. They must work with the state on ways to better evaluate teachers, and remove bad ones. And they need to be a partner. Fewer than two-thirds of local teachers unions signed on to the state’s plan, a signal to federal reviewers that New York’s ability to implement what was otherwise considered to be a “comprehensive, coherent, reform agenda” was questionable.

New York has two months before applications for the next round of grants are due. That’s ample time to learn from the lessons that are so apparent here. There will simply be no excuse for repeating such a poor performance.