By Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — New York State lost $700 million on Monday after the state Legislature failed to raise the charter school cap and enact other laws that may have made New York more competitive in the federal Race to the Top competition.
The federal program was created by the Obama administration to encourage education reform in four keys areas, including improving data systems that measure academic standards, turning around low-performing schools, recruiting and appropriately rewarding effective teachers and adopting standards that properly prepare students for college.
New York, along with 14 other states and Washington, D.C., had made it through the first elimination round in the competition in the first week of March, to the surprise of many.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to the application as being on “life support” because of the legislative restrictions on charter schools — New York has a 200-charter school cap — and a law barring performance-based compensation for teachers.
The decision on the Race to the Top winners was made based on a 500-point grading system, which ranked states’ commitment to the program's goals.
Forty states and Washington D.C. were among the applicants for a share of the $4 billion in grant money. Tennessee and Delaware were awarded the funds.
New York will be eligible for the second phase of the program, during which $3.4 billion will be awarded.
New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein called the failed Race to the Top application "a painful missed opportunity for our state," and said he would work with lawmakers to help increase New York's chances of getting the federal monies in the program's second round.
Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, said, "We set a very high bar for the first phase.
"With $3.4 billion still available, we're providing plenty of opportunity for all other states to develop plans and aggressively pursue reform."
