The vote made it difficult to do anything but revoke the grant, said Michael J. Petrilli, executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a national education policy think-tank in Washington. “All eyes are on (U.S. Secretary of Education) Arne Duncan to see if he’s going to follow through on his tough statement that states are going to be held accountable for their promises.”
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Associated Press
HONOLULU — The fate of Hawaii’s $75 million Race to the Top grant remains uncertain after teachers turned down a proposed contract that would have removed a major stumbling block in delivering on promised reforms.
Members of the Hawaii State Teachers Association on Thursday voted 2-1 against the deal that would have included moving toward a performance-based compensation system. If the contract was ratified, a labor dispute against the state would have been dropped and negotiations could have started on reforms promised by the state in winning the federal money.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Education admonished Hawaii for its “unsatisfactory” performance under the grant the state won last year in a high profile competition, saying it was placing the state under “high risk” status.
One of the major deadlines the state missed was implementing financial incentives for teachers to work in low-income, low-performing communities of Waianae and Nanakuli on Oahu and Ka’u, Keaau and Pahoa on the Big Island. Wil Okabe, the president of the union, had anticipated that once the agreement was finalized, negotiations could begin on those incentives.
National education policy observers will be watching to see if the administration makes good on the threat.
“This is a bit of a double-dare to the U.S. Secretary of Education,” Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., said Friday. “This is really a direct challenge to him. Hawaii has really become the poster child for implementation challenges for Race to the Top.”
The vote made it difficult to do anything but revoke the grant, said Michael J. Petrilli, executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a national education policy think-tank in Washington. “All eyes are on (U.S. Secretary of Education) Arne Duncan to see if he’s going to follow through on his tough statement that states are going to be held accountable for their promises.”