Race to the Top: New York is in! By Maryam Abdul-Aleem, Amsterdam News, 2010-03-11, English

New York was named one out of 16 applicants for the Race to the Top federal funding in the competition spurred by the U.S. Department of Education, even after legislators failed to come to an agreement on whether to raise the number of charter schools in the state for selection for the grant money of up to $700 million.

New York State officials, however, still have to demonstrate education reform in the school system to federal reviewers and a commitment to turn the school system in a new direction in the next phase of the competition, which is bringing the charter school cap issue back in the political ring. Chancellor Joel Klein says that although the state was named a finalist, there is still more work to be done to show that the state is serious about reforming education and being a model to the nation.

"I urge lawmakers to act in the coming weeks to approve school reform initiatives advocated by the Obama administration: lifting the cap on charter schools, evaluating teachers based on whether they're helping their students to learn, making it easier to remove ineffective teachers and – should we be forced to lay off teachers – ensuring that those who remain in classrooms are the very best, not simply the longest-serving," Klein said.

But many in the community and on the grassroots level do not want to reform policies that the Obama administration has advocated.

In Rhode Island – one of the other finalists for the Race to the Top competition – the school board fired the entire staff of Central Falls High School in one of the poorest cities in its efforts to implement education reform. The decision was applauded by President Obama and the education secretary as a good approach towards changing "failing schools."

Here in Harlem, the community spoke out against the Panel for Educational Policy's vote to phase out and convert high schools to smaller schools last month. And a large segment of the community is still leery of the number of charter schools that have taken up residence in traditional public schools buildings.

Some are calling changes to education the civil rights issue of the time and "separate and unequal" in nature because the innovative initiatives are overwhelmingly implemented in urban areas with large populations of Black and Brown people.

The education reform techniques, furthermore, are controversial for many educators, teachers unions, and activists, who are instead calling for more investment in improving the current schools, rather than closing schools and starting over, which some school officials are now adopting and is supported by the federal government.

The results for the Race to the Top competition will be announced in April.

Other finalists for the completion are Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee.