RttT Thoughts from another Delaware School Board Member

Wolfe Gary is a member of the Milford Board of Education and an advocate for Public Education.  He publishes his own blog, Education and Community News from Home Town Delaware.  His most recent entry bears repeating:

January 10, 2010


Posted by Wolfe Gary in Delaware Politics, Education

I have been away for awhile but not absent as I’ve been reading all that I can on “Race to the Top” our wonderful governors latest insight. I caught a post from http://transparentchristina.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/newsflash-baton-rouge-state-school-board-association-unanimously-rejects-race-to-the-top-by-a-vote-of-17-0/ which was about a school board from Baton Rouge that felt the cost was too high for the benefit. That is my biggest concern as the boards prepare to meet and sign the MOU that is required by Jan 11th. I have asked other board members who I know from around the state what are their concerns as well, and when I read the section I’ve quoted from the article I know why I am having second thoughts. The quote is, “A key consideration is the requirement that local school boards must continue to fund programs initiated with R2T grants once the four-year term of the grant expires. State and federal budgetary forecasts, board members concluded, likely will not yield new appropriations and local school board members would be required to ask for tax increases.” I actually had to go back and re-read the executive summary again to see if this was in there and sure enough it is!
So as local board members meet to review and possibly sign the MOU I still can’t see how Jack Markell can ask the boards to sign when we all know what our lovely state budget is looking like! How do we continue programs when we don’t even know if the state will have funds when the 4 years of RTTT ends?