Policy Pick: California's Kids Left Behind In Race to the Top**

**Updated

California's education system suffered a setback when the state was dropped from the list of contenders for the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant.

In a press release issued just before Thanksgiving, the U.S. Department of Education announced that seven of the nine state applicants would be eligible to receive Race to the Top funding. Only South Carolina, which had dropped out of the competition, and California, which the Department says submitted an incomplete application, will not move on to the next round.

According to the Thoughts on Public Education blog, California education officials did not submit and sign the official short application due to "a fundamental disagreement about what California was asked to commit to." The state would get funds if the governor, superintendent of Public Instruction and president of the Board of Education signed assurances that California remained committed to reforms in four areas from its Phase 2 application.

A spokesperson from the California Department of Education said that the short application portion was not completed because it would require the state to commit to reforms that were determined at the local level. In lieu of completing the form, Gov. Jerry Brown and other state education officials sent a letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan that expressed commitment to adopting Race to the Top's reforms, but also stated that California "... cannot afford to implement these reforms statewide, though, nor can it compel Local Education Agencies to implement them." However, the letter went on say that numerous LEAs are prepared to adopt several of the Race to the Top reforms.

Reaction to California's elimination has been mixed. "At a time when California has cut funding for K-12 education - and is about to cut more - the state just left $49 million in federal education dollars on the table," stated a Sacramento Bee editorial.

But others view the state's attempt more positively. "The U.S. Department of Education is wrongly attempting to impose its view of how states should improve education instead of just requiring them to show evidence of higher achievement," said an editorial in the Los Angeles Times. "It's important for schools to do this thoughtfully - in ways that are valid, backed by research and that work for individual districts - rather than through rushed nationwide mandates. "

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