Michael Dorausch/Flickr

Nicholas Kamakya takes 2nd place at the LA marathon.

California fell short in the federal government’s controversial “Race to the Top” program for federal funds, but might not leave the track empty-handed. Instead of winning a 700 million dollar grant, the Golden State, which was considered a front-runner for the payday, could instead receive a modest consolation prize of up to 50 million dollars. The state will still get another chance to compete for the big bucks—the Department of Education announced yesterday another round of competition, this time boasting a prize of 500 million. In order to qualify for the last round of competition, local school districts pledged to embrace controversial reforms such as linking teacher evaluations to standardized test scores and allowing poorly performing schools to be converted into independently run charters. Critics argued that states like California are too willing to trade desperately needed one-time funding for unproven, aggressive policies handed down from the federal government. How will California do things differently to win and what can what reforms can be expected if we do win?

Guests:

Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times Education reporter

Christopher Steinhauser, superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District