As encouraging as it is to see California in the running to win a Race to the Top grant for its schools, we can’t help wondering how great a price the state will pay for the possibility of receiving as much as $700 million.
The U.S. Department of Education announced last week that California is one of 19 finalists in the second round of grant applications. Should it succeed — and the odds are decent, because officials say that more than half the finalists will receive grants — many of California’s neediest schools will receive infusions of new money. Even so, we see this potential win as mixed news.