WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Arne Duncan said yesterday that New York “made some good moves” by easing restrictions on charter schools and put itself on better footing to win federal Race to the Top education dollars.
He said raising the cap on charter schools was “a piece of the puzzle.”
“We’ve always said that where you have strong, good, innovative schools — why we should limit those never quite made sense to me,” he said.
“Obviously, we are in the middle of a competition, so I can’t comment on any particular state’s application. But I think New York has worked extraordinarily hard,” Duncan said after addressing a Capitol Hill summit of New York college and university presidents that was organized by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
“They had a good application in the first round. They were one of the finalists — didn’t quite win,” Duncan said of New York’s performance in the funding competition. “The application in the second round has a chance to be even stronger.”
States are competing for $700 million in federal education grants. S.A. Miller