California Denied Education Stimulus Funds...Again

This story comes courtesy of California Watch

By Louis Freedberg

It was bad enough that California, with a population of 36.9 million, was rejected by the Obama administration in its request for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education Race to the Top funds.

In that grant competition, Delaware and Tennessee, with populations of only 885,000 and 6.2 million respectively, were the winners, walking away with $600 million between the two of them.

Now, California's application for improving its longitudinal data system to track students from pre-kindergarten through high school, college and into the workplace has also been given the cold shoulder. The system would have allowed the state to assess the effectiveness of its education programs, as well as monitor the progress of students through the entire education system.

As I wrote in January, for months data experts from the California Department of Education, the University of California, CSU and community college system worked together to come up with a proposal for the data-tracking system, for $20 million out of a total pot of $245 million.

But the state has just heard that its application has been turned down. This time California was aced out by some 20 other states, which will receive hefty grants ranging from $19.7 million (New York) and $17.5 million (Virginia) to $9.6 million (Utah) and $7.3 million (Maine). What's more, unlike with the Race to the Top competition, it does not appear as if there will be another round for which California can apply this year, as the U.S. Department of Education has now given out all the available funds.

California has worked for years to set a system known as CALPADS (California Longitudinal Pupil Data System) for tracking some 6 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade. What is still missing is tying this data to data from student performance at California's community colleges, CSU and UC, and the ability to follow students into the workforce as well.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell called the rejection of California's request "deeply disappointing."

That's almost certainly an understatement. What must rub salt in the wounds of those who put the proposal together is that in order to compete for additional federal grants, the Obama administration is more or less requiring states to establish tracking systems like the one California is willing to adopt.

But without federal funds to set it up, it is unlikely to happen because of the state's horrendous financial situation. That in turn could make it more difficult for California to compete for other desperately needed federal funds to support its multi-billion dollar, and cash-starved, education enterprise.

Comments

[mamacat]

07:37 PM on 05/24/2010

In 2005, the last year for which I was able to get figures, Californians paid to the federal government $289.6 billion, and got back $242 billion, a deficit of $47.6 billion, for just one, single year.
The article above talks about a few tens of millions of dollars that California is being denied, for education, but what about the tens of billions of dollars that go to Washington and then go to other states, but not California, year in and year out?

Between 1987 and 2005, California paid in to the federal government about $3.604 trillion, but got back only $3.07 trillion, a difference of about $534 billion.

When talking about the "terrible" state of California's budget deficit, why don't we talk about the federal taxation and budgetary policies that unfairly target this state's wealth for the benefit of the rest of the nation? The majority of the 50 states get much more from Washington than what they pay in to Washington, while California is cutting back on education and on its law enforcement forces.

[OCMOMMA]

10:48 AM on 05/25/2010

I wish there was a way to get this information out to more Californians.

There was a movement a couple years ago among the state's school superintendents to sue the Feds to fully fund Federal mandates. This was in regard to programs like testing, special education and providing educating undocumented children. If the nation wants these programs, they should pay for them. They should send more of California's tax money home.

[mamacat]

01:47 PM on 05/25/2010

To request the Feds to fund the federal mandates would go a long way toward helping with the many states' deficits, and seems like a common-sense thing to do. Even without federal funding for the federal mandates, California would be in better fiscal condition if more of the taxes that we pay were used in the state, instead of used elsewhere. We are not talking about just a few dollars here, the amount is huge.

Looking at the website of "The Tax Foundation", I see only three years between 1987 and 2005 when the tax disparity was in California's favor, and those three years were during Clinton's administration, if that means anything. It is probably only a coincidence, right? Republican presidents wouldn't intentionally be working to harm California's budgetary process, would they?

[mwaca]

07:17 PM on 05/24/2010

State's broke county's broke, school's have been wasteful and inept with millions and millions of dollars. What do you expect?

[roscoeman]

04:54 PM on 05/24/2010

We at LAUSD spent 90 million on a computer system that didn't work and half a million on a superintendent that didn't work either.
I don't blame the Obama administration

[corwin]

06:17 PM on 05/24/2010

Of course you don't

[Jay Mack]

04:12 PM on 05/24/2010

$11,500 is more than enough money to educate a child.

[Lenny25]

03:27 PM on 05/24/2010

California continues not to receive money from the federal government because the administrative bureaucracy charged with spending it is totally and completely corrupt. Jack O'Connell's California Department of Education has never been able to control the obscene waste of money by LAUSD. The newly appointed Chief of Staff- to vacuous-slogan-spouting LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines- Michell King, had the chutzpah to say, "I believe we do a good job in LAUSD, a great job" in the same week that the California Department of Education released the 2009 API scores that show 72% of LAUSD students in the lower 50 percentile (http://www.perdaily.com/2010/05/api-alzheimers.html).

Would you continue to play in a poker game where you knew that the dealer was cheating? Why would anybody in their right mind give more money to LAUSD as constituted or even consider voting yes on Measure E in favor of a supplemental property assessment to give these incompetents even more money to waste. Come to www.perdaily.com to learn about LAUSD dysfunction, share what you know, and organize to finally get rid of these jokers once and for all. Need and the competence to effectively address it are two very different things.

[Sportswoman]

03:04 PM on 05/24/2010

Just don't ask me to take any more pay cuts or furlough days or I will be forced to trade in 30 years' experience, along with 90 post-grad units, for a barista job at Coffee Bean--should I be so fortunate to even get a job. I know banks aren't hiring...

[Jebbushnot]

02:42 PM on 05/24/2010

The Fed is broke, California is broke....all the money went to the US military in its navy,its airforce, its army and the invasion of two nations and bases all over the world. I thought you knew.

[tucsoncindy]

02:34 PM on 05/24/2010

Now, California's application for improving its longitudinal data system to track students from pre-kindergarten through high school, college and into the workplace has also been given the cold shoulder. The system would have allowed the state to assess the effectiveness of its education programs, as well as monitor the progress of students through the entire education system..
Would this have saved Teachers jobs and given much needed funds to buy books or
provide sports and music classes to the California school system ???
With all the cuts in Education taking place in AZ...( Brewer thinks education is only for the rich)
the citizens passed a 1% sales tax state wide to cover school budgets and keep teachers
from losing their jobs...AZ still ranks 49th in education nation wide...

[oregon bird]

02:19 PM on 05/24/2010

In other words, the stimulus money wouldn't have been spent on actual education... just on "administrative" costs. While school hours and days were cut even further.

Good. I'm glad California was refused those funds.

[moniqueg]

03:06 PM on 05/24/2010

As a Californian, I could not agree with you more. This was a great move on the part of the Obama administration. California government officials burn through money faster than a wildfire. The State brings in a motherlode in tax revenue. They need to better manage what they have. Isn't that what sane people do?

[supergenius02]

02:09 PM on 05/24/2010

Calfornia should remember this rejection from Obama at the polls in 2012. California delivered more electoral votes to Obama than any other state. No wonder today's Rassmussen poll has Obama at only a 44% approval rating. Heck, only 49% of Democrats strongly approve him now which is down from 65% when Obamacare passed.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

If Obama won't stand by California, California should not stand by Obama. He talked a good "teleprompter" reading game but failed when it came to put up or shut up.

[4evryoung]

02:17 PM on 05/24/2010

I would be interested in knowing "why" CA's application was rejected. This story leaves a lot out.

[oregon bird]

02:20 PM on 05/24/2010

It's right there in the story. The funds were earmarked for administrative costs -- they wouldn't have been used to provide education at all.

[KarateKid]

05:23 PM on 05/24/2010

Rasmussen....LMAO.

And, aren't your ilk the ones talking fiscal responsibility? I'd say not giving California money to further bloat administrative costs is fiscal responsibility. California's leaders ought to look at themselves and how they hurt the teachers who do the real work, not to mention the kids.

The elimination of the adoption cycle was a shortsighted and _stupid thing to do, and the kids won't have any textbooks until 2016. THAT is not Obama's fault. It's your _idiots running the state, including your governor.

[ALRIGHTALREADY]

02:03 PM on 05/24/2010

you want to put 20-30 million into a data tracking system ?.....What kind of BS use of money is that ? Stop paying money for studies

[davidpkronmiller]

01:17 PM on 05/24/2010

After reading the little bit about the program mentioned in this article it doesn't sound like it's necessarily a great program - this tracking thing. What's the point in studying how students have done when it's pretty obvious for any of us who have spent time in California Public Schools what the problems are - need more teachers and better curriculum that adapts to the students learning needs/methods. This sounds like some folks had an idea for a study and lost their bid for funding. This is not a snub but a decision. We can't all get our way.

Maybe if they put together a solid plan to turn around Ca's school system rather than just spend more time staring at it?

[Jebbushnot]

02:43 PM on 05/24/2010

Its an expensive program to document the obvious. Let's spend $40million to see if LA has dirty air! How about spending another $40 million to see if teens have tattoes.

[RyanCSmith]

01:04 PM on 05/24/2010

No matter who is in the White House California is pretty much on its own.

[bruinlover09]

02:32 PM on 05/24/2010

Very true.

[alreadybad]

02:50 PM on 05/24/2010

And as long as Cali wants to remain stuck on stupid it should stay there.

[RyanCSmith]

04:33 PM on 05/24/2010

Funny how it was the anti-tax revolt that put us in this lurch in the first place. You know, little things like how it takes 2/3rds of BOTH chambers of the legislature to raise taxes or pass a budget.