Curious Reactions on Federal Grant

Florida’s education community learned Monday that our state would not be getting a federal grant in the first phase of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant

---

March 30, 2010                                                                                       Contact: Mark Pudlow, 850.201.3223 or 850.508.9756

Tallahassee -   Florida Education Association President Andy Ford said he was heartened that there was second phase of the federal grant, which would provide Florida a chance to get a grant proposal that worked for all participants in the education community. Ford noted that the Obama administration said one of the problems with Florida’s grant proposal was the lack of buy-in from teachers unions and other stakeholders. And he added that he looked forward to working with the state Department of Education to overcome this hurdle.

The reaction has been curious. Mark Wilson, president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce issued a news release condemning FEA and blaming the union for the federal decision. So did House Republicans. Various Republican members of the Legislature chimed in, as did GOP gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Bill McCollum.

“The Chamber and the Republican political leaders need to understand the meaning of the word collaboration,” Ford said. “They didn’t understand what the Obama administration was trying to accomplish with Race to the Top. The states that were awarded grants got them because they collaborated to find a common approach to their grant applications. That wasn’t the case in Florida, where the state Department of Education ignored the counsel not only of the Florida Education Association, but of all the other education players who were trying to build a successful grant application.

“This attitude of blame will not help us succeed in the second round of the Race to the Top awards,” Ford said. “We certainly hope cooler heads will prevail so that the Florida Department of Education, the FEA and everyone else in the education community can figure out ways we can deliver a better application for the second round.”