Gov. Andrew Cuomo is offering schools millions of dollars for academic initiatives that are overwhelmingly supported by education experts, and for the second time, districts aren’t interested in the money.
The vast majority of eligible school districts didn’t apply for Cuomo’s $75 million competitive grants this year, which would fund the creation of full-day pre-kindergarten, extend the school day or year, create “community schools,” where at-risk students can get health care, counseling and other services, and reward high-performing teachers in high-need districts.
Experts offered a variety of explanations for why participation in Cuomo’s programs is so low, after a first round of grants also drew a relative few applications. Mainly, schools don’t want to build programs they’ll have to dismantle when grants expire, leaders said.