Youngstown, Warren schools can’t afford to skip the ‘race’

President Barack Obama’s intention to seek $1.3 billion in this year’s federal budget to con- tinue the “Race to the Top,” a program designed to improve academic achievement in schools throughout the country, prompts this question: Will the Youngstown and Warren school districts, which are in academic emergency and ac- ademic watch, respectively, make a concerted bid for the grant money?

We use the word concerted because in order for a district’s application to be approved by the state, the signatures of the superintendent, pres- ident of the school board and president of the teachers’ union are required on a memorandum of understanding. The state actually applies for the money from Washington.

The deadline for first round of funding was Tuesday, and while Ohio submitted an applica- tion and hopes to draw as much as $400 million of the $4.3 billion available, neither Youngstown nor Warren will get a dime. That’s because the teachers’ unions in both districts refused to join their superintendents and school boards in sign- ing the applications.

Why the refusal by the unions to make a play for the federal grants?

Youngstown could have received as much as $4 million — this is a school district that is not only in academic emergency, but has been in fiscal emergency since 2006 — and Warren could have secured more than $1 million.

June Johnson, a member of the State Fiscal Oversight Commission that is managing the Youngstown School District’s finances, used the word unconscionable to describe the failure to submit an application that met all the require- ments set forth in the Race to the Top program. It’s a word that is also applicable to Warren.

Bargaining agreement

William Bagnola, president of the Youngstown teachers’ union, said that some of the provisions in the memorandum of understanding would vi- olate the collective bargaining agreement.

He noted, for example, that staffing in schools in Youngstown is done through seniority and cer- tification, whereas the Race to the Top program requires that “effective” teachers be placed in high-poverty, high-minority schools, especially bypassing the teachers’ contract.

The requirement that the evaluation of teach- ers should be tied to the performance of students is also a major point of contention for the union. In a district like Youngstown’s, student perfor- mance is often affected by conditions beyond a teacher’s control, the union president said.

And yet, President Obama is determined to for- ward with the program. The budget he submits to Congress will contain more than $1.3 billion for the Race to the Top program.

The $4 billion for the first round represents one of the largest investments in reform in the nation’s history, the president said, noting that states must compete for the money.

It is unfortunate that two of the school districts in Ohio most in need, Youngstown and Warren, are not in the mix.

But given the president’s commitment to ex- pand the program, it is time for the superinten- dents, the school boards and the teachers’ unions to work out the impediments to participation.