| Houston Chronicle Jan. 13--Gov. Rick Perry said today that Texas will not compete for up to $700 million in federal grant funding for schools. SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS His decision to snub the Race to the Top grant competition defied pleas from several Houston-area school leaders who said their districts could use the money. But Perry, joined by state Education Commissioner Robert Scott, said the money was not worth the federal mandates. Texas, Perry said, "reserves the right to decide how we educate our children and not surrender that control to the federal bureaucracy." The Republican governor made the annoucement at the Region 4 Education Service Center in Houston. Perry's decision drew praise from some teacher groups and several lawmakers who said the federal funding would have come with too many strings. The U.S. Department of Education plans to dole out $4 billion to those states that embrace certain reform ideas such as adopting national curriculum standards -- an effort Perry and Scott oppose. Texas and Alaska are the only two states that have not joined a common standards initiative. Based on its size, Texas could have qualified for about $350 million to $700 million -- or $75 to $150 per student. "Everybody can use money", said state Rep. Rob Eissler, a Republican from The Woodlands who chairs of the House Public Education Committee. "But if you look at a one-time infusion of $80 per child and then having to change your laws permanently -- I think we're better off doing what we're doing." Some states such as California and Florida scrambled to change laws to qualify, while Perry delayed announcing whether Texas would apply until one week before the application was due. As of last week, Texas Education Agency staff had spent 700 to 800 hours on the application in case the governor gave the green light. The Texas Classroom Teachers Association and the Texas-American Federation of Teachers had urged Perry and Scott not to apply for Race to the Top. "It's hard to justify the adoption of policies that we think are detrimental to Texas for such a minimal investment", said Linda Bridges, president of Texas-AFT. Bridges said the grant encouraged "draconian" measures to fix struggling schools, such as closing them. She also disagreed with its call to link student test scores to high-stakes personnel decisions -- a move the Houston school board plans to make this week. ericka.mellon@chron.com
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