March 5, 2009
Colorado First State To Recognize That 'Race To The Top' Is, Um, Actually A Race
Or, what if you decided to host a party, but Colorado was the only state that showed up...
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter this week appointed Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien to serve as his hand-picked "Race To The Top" czar, to make sure the state is demonstrating its commitment to meaningful refom so it can qualify for boatloads of innovation funding for schools contained in the recently adopted stimulus festivus.
O'Brien, a member of the DFER-Colorado steering committee, is the perfect person for the job, and you'd have to say that Colorado is poised to be one of Education Sectetary Arne Duncan's top reform-minded posterchildren at this point. (In my Stimulus tournament bracket I have Colorado going all the way to the Final Four.)
Ritter's press release is after the jump. Look for DFER at the big Colorado Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Denver on Saturday night. And even though the whole idea of governors doing anything interesting with education is like, so 1990's, it will be interesting to see if anyone else follows Ritter's lead here.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 3, 2009
Contact:
Ellen Dumm, 303-866-6361 (office), 303 892-0194 (cell),
<mailto:ellen.dumm@state.co.us> ellen.dumm@state.co.us
Gov. Ritter Names Lt. Gov. O'Brien to Spearhead "Race to the Top" Education Effort
Gov. Bill Ritter has named Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien to spearhead a
special effort to compete for a share of more than $4.3 billion dollars for
Colorado's education system. The "Race to the Top," as it is known, is a
competition created by President Obama's administration by way of the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that will provide financial
support to top states that have demonstrated their commitment to improving
education systems in their states. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is expected
to distribute $4.35 billion nationwide to a short list of states.
"Colorado has worked very diligently, and achieved noteworthy successes
concerning innovative education reform efforts over the past two and a
half years," said Lt. Gov. O'Brien, who also co-chairs Gov. Ritter's P-20
Council on education reform. "As a result, we should be in a good position to
make the case that Colorado is among the elite states in the nation regarding
education reform."
Lt. Gov. O'Brien will lead a steering committee that will prepare a proposal that will be submitted to Secretary Duncan's office this summer. Funds are expected to flow in 2010. States competing for the funds will need to demonstrate significant progress in education reform, specifically in
the areas of improving the collection and use of longitudinal data, achieving equity in quality teacher distribution, improving chronically low performing schools, and improving state standards and assessments.
"Last year, we recommended and the legislature passed the CAP4Kids bill, a cutting-edge policy that aligns state standards and assessments with postsecondary and workforce readiness. CAP4K is very clearly in line with the Obama administration's stated priorities. In fact, all of the "Race
to the Top" priorities are issues the P-20 Council and the Department of Education have been working on for the past two and a half years. I'm approaching this task with enthusiasm and tremendous optimism, and I'm looking forward to the collaboration with the Colorado Department of Education and the Legislature," said Lt. Gov. O'Brien.
