One of the more head scratching moments I have witnessed since beginning work on education reform came a few weeks ago during a hearing of the Joint Committee on Education at the Capitol in Jefferson City. The only agenda item for the hearing was a presentation by the new Commissioner of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Chris Nicastro. The presentation was an introduction of herself and focused on her vision for education in the state. Several members of the committee exchanged pleasantries with her during the questions portion of the hearing and all was seemingly well.
Enter State Senator Scott Rupp, Republican from the 2nd Senatorial District, covering Lincoln and some of St. Charles County. Senator Rupp had two straight-forward questions for Missouri’s new education chief. The first was to ask about DESE’s progress in the application process for the Race to the Top grants, a federal competitive grant program that was part of the stimulus package passed in Congress. The second was to ask what the legislature could do to help Missouri be more competitive when applying for the grants. Dr. Nicastro’s answers that followed shed a bright light on much of what is wrong with education in Missouri.
Dr. Nicastro informed the committee the DESE would not be applying for the first half of the Race to the Top competition. She cited the number of hours needed to produce a viable application and the short timetable between the final applications being released (October) and the deadline for the application (December). She also lamented the fact that select states have had a head start in creating applications due to help from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The fact that DESE would be sitting out the first half of a competition for a piece of almost $4.5 billion did not sit well with Senator Rupp, and rightfully so. In this competition all 50 states are starting from the same starting gate. The difference is that other states have been proactive in compiling the necessary information for applications since President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the program on July 24. They have submitted official comments on the program and participated in multiple webinars held by the Department of Education since the announcement, not sat on the sidelines and watched a likely once in a lifetime opportunity pass them by. Furthermore, the Gates Foundation is now going to help any state that wants it with their applications.
Could the real reasoning for this inaction be that DESE knows that Missouri is behind in implementing the education reforms that are called for in order to have a competitive application and lack the desire to see these reforms implemented? One of the main reforms called for by the President and Secretary Duncan is for states to lift caps on charter schools. Missouri currently has geographic caps on where charter schools can be located, only allowing them to open in the St. Louis and Kansas City public school districts.
Senator Rupp specifically referenced these caps when asking Dr. Nicastro what the legislature could do to help Missouri’s application. She dodged commenting in detail on that specific reform but offered another shocking answer to this question. Dr. Nicastro referenced a recent comparison of all 50 states, ranking them on their competitiveness in the Race to the Top competition stating that this assessment labeled Missouri “moderately competitive” and that she was not sure if any legislative changes would be needed.
Since when is “moderately competitive” acceptable for our children? How can Missouri even hope to be awarded any piece of the $4.35 billion in grants if we are sitting out the first half of the competition and are only striving to be “moderately competitive” once we get in the game? What is needed are real reforms that will not only make Missouri competitive in the fight for these funds, but in education achievement in the country and world. These reforms start with lifting caps on charter schools and implementing data tracking that will let us know where our students, and their teachers, stand. That would be a grand addition to DESE’s legislative priorities that they recently presented to the State Board of Education at their September meeting.
Sadly, I don’t see Dr. Nicastro’s “moderately competitive” response as a one- time poor choice of words. It appears to be a continuation of the education establishment’s status quo policies. Missourians understand that our public education isn’t keeping up to remain globally-competitive. Multiple studies ranking the states on education achievement place Missouri somewhere in the middle of the pack in the nation. In addition, most studies rank the United States anywhere from 16th to 20th for student achievement among industrialized countries. With globalization of economies and business ever increasing, this places Missouri far down the line to lead the future. This is the achievement that states who strive to be moderately competitive can expect. The time for real education reform and increased expectations is now.
