Is Maine Racing to the Bottom or the Top? Sources Say...

Just when things weren't looking so good in Augusta, several hours ago (Friday afternoon) the Maine House voted "yes" to establish charter schools in the state for the first time. The action now shifts back to the Senate, which must decide whether it wants to negotiate a bill with the House or tell them to go pound sand. It might be best to negotiate and pass a bill, given that a chunk of the $4.5 billion in federal Race to the Top funds seems at stake...

That's at least a reasonable conclusion given two sources. The first source is today's news release from the Department of Education about Secretary Duncan's visit to North Star Charter Academy in Newark. Speaking about the $891 million released to the Garden State, the DOE said, "In order to receive today's funds, New Jersey provided assurances that it will collect, publish, analyze and act on basic information regarding the quality of classroom teachers, annual student improvements, college readiness, the effectiveness of state standards and assessments, progress on removing charter caps (emp. added) and interventions in turning around underperforming schools." The second is Duncan's meeting with reporters this coming Monday afternoon plugged by the DOE as a discussion of "how the quality of states' public charter schools will support the ability to compete for grants from the 'Race to the Top' fund." Of course, Maine is one of 10 states with the biggest charter school cap of all: none.  It's getting interestinger and interestinger.

WS