Looks like the $400 million in public school bailout funds IL Democrat leaders were hoping to get fell through. Hometown boy Sec of Education Arne Duncan didn't deliver this time. Illinois loses in "The Race to the Top." So, what's Plan B now, guys? StLouisToday reports:
The winning states in the Race to the Top grant competition were Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island and the District of Columbia.
But an objective observer says the whole thing's a farce anyway. It's not about innovative new ideas, it's about ... well ... he doesn't know what exactly ...
Michael Petrilli, a vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute think tank on education issues, called the mix of winners "a disastrous outcome for the administration," writing on his blog on Tuesday, although he said he saw no evidence that partisan considerations had colored the outcome. States widely considered as leaders in innovation like Colorado and Louisiana, Petrilli said, had been excluded, while others with what he called merely mediocre plans for improving their schools, like Ohio, were winners.
"The lofty rhetoric of the Race to the Top has turned to farce," Petrilli wrote.
All we know is that Illinois budget gurus were hoping that $400 million in more federal bailout funds that would help us dig out of the deep state budget mess we're in. That ain't gonna happen now. So, again guys, what's Plan B to get promised funds to our public schools?
