Nevada Loses Round 1 In Race To The Top Funds

Nevada is out of the running for next round of Race To The Top funds. It did not pass the first round. From the Lahontan Valley News: "Federal officials announced Tuesday that Nevada will not be eligible for the $175 million in federal education money under the Race to the Top program.Gov. Jim Gibbons said, however, that won't stop his blue ribbon education reform commission from moving ahead with plans to reform the state's public school system.Nevada didn't file an application in the first round of the Race to the Top competition, which drew criticism from some quarters. The problem was that to qualify for the money Nevada had to first repeal the law that barred school districts from linking student achievement to teacher evaluations.That law was changed during the special session earlier this year and the state filed its application for funding by the June 1 deadline."

Of course, Harry Reid, playing politics and sounding like a demented father says this: Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., blamed the Gibbons administration, accusing governor of a “severe lack of leadership in education.”“While the governors from other states were aggressively working to pass new reform laws and position their states to take advantage of these important funds, our governor was satisfied with only meeting the minimum requirement to file our application,” said Reid.
Hey, moron, it had nothing to do with Gibbons. The LEGISLATORS had to pass the law to even come close to applying for the funds. It was also the teacher's union who held things up as well because they wanted certain wording in the bill that was passed by the legislators.
And Gibbons is wrong as well: “Reid has never lifted a finger to help us while we applied for these special federal funds for education,” he said. “Harry Reid was asleep at the switch again when the teachers, parents, children and families of Nevada needed his help.”
http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/article/20100727/NEWS/100729894/1055&ParentProfile=1045 Reid could not do anything about this funding if he tried, at least this time. There is no excuse for Reid not to bring more money for education, especially help with Special Education funds. The Fed's have promised to pay 2/3 of Special education but the Fed's come up way short. So Harry could bring in more money to school districts, but he chooses not to, but he is no way to blame for losing this round in the Race to the Top.
This was a very long shot at best, to get this money. It was the state's first attempt at the funding and most states have to apply several times in order for them to get the grant money.
In my opinion, it is evil money. It is going to cost more in the long run and all this does is hire a few more teachers but hire many more administrators and so called "experts". Just as No Child Left Behind didn't do a whole lot, neither will Race To The Top. It's just the latest fad in education and it just has school districts and states jumping through hoops to do nothing. It just looks good on paper and that's about it.
Another reason to get rid of the Department of Education.