By Bill Cleary
ONLY IN NEW JERSEY-The United States Department of Education recently announced the finalists of the Race To The Top program. A pool of 41 applicants competed for over $4.35 billion in school reform grants as part of President Obama’s economic stimulus proposal. The goals of the DOE’s Race To The Top is to reward student achievement through the development of strong standards combined with quality teachers in the classroom, and encouraging students in lower performing schools to improve.
Although the state of New Jersey submitted an application it was not chosen. The reason, according to NJ Commissioner of Education Bret Schundler, is because the teachers unions did not back the federal program.
Schundler states, \”President Obama’s education initiative, Race To The Top, embodies many ideas that Governor Christie and I agree with and will advocate for in the next four years. While we are extremely disappointed that New Jersey was not included as a finalist in this first round of funding, we are not surprised.
\”From the start of this process it has been clear that while the Corzine administration submitted a good application, a major deficiency in New Jersey’s submission was the lack of support from local union leadership. With union leaders in more than 350 participating districts refusing to sign on, it would have been very difficult to convince the U.S. Department of Education that New Jersey was united behind this effort.
\”In these extremely difficult fiscal times, the entire education community in our state must come together to fight for New Jersey and put the best interest of our children first. As we begin to work on the second round due in June, I am encouraged that the NJEA leadership has agreed to work on this with us. With their support of what the President is seeking from New Jersey, I’m convinced we will be able to put forward a winning application.\”
The U.S. Department of Education chose schools in: Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee. The final winners slated to receive portions of the federal grant will be determined in April.
ONLY IN GLOUCESTER CITY-Jim Bowie Johnson, who retired from his job as
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