• Share
• E-Mail
• Print

Mayor Daley on Wednesday blasted a federal education bureaucracy run by former Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan for excluding Chicago from the presentation that culminated in Illinois being shut out from $400 million in federal funds.

The money was available through the Race to the Top program, President Obama's marquee education initiative. After cutting the ribbon at a new elementary school in West Rogers Park, Chicago's lame-duck mayor ridiculed all the "political slogans'' that have ballyhooed federal education programs under the last two presidents.

"You leave no child left behind. You race to the top. Next year, you race to the bottom. Next year, you race to the side. Everybody's racing to something," Daley said.

"Why can't you send us money to build our schools. . . . All the teachers know that these are just political slogans. We should end it."

Daley said the outcome of the Race to the Top sweepstake might have been different for Illinois, if only "those who had worked in the vineyards" in Chicago had been part of the pitch for federal funding.

Instead, the State Board of Education made the presentation and the results were a huge disappointment. Illinois finished 15th among 19 finalists.

The District of Columbia and nine states - including Florida, Massachusetts and Hawaii - won the right to divide $3.3 billion in federal funds over the next four years.

"We could not make the presentation on behalf of Illinois. . . . Think of that. Illinois made the presentation. There aren't many great changes outside Chicago in education. They all happened here. That's the thing I couldn't understand. Why- " Daley said.

CPS CEO "Ron Huberman should have made the presentation with a team about the things we've done with cooperation from principals and students and parents. That's a great story."

Asked why Chicago was excluded, Daley said. "Don't ask me. Ask what happened in Washington. But wasn't that kind of silly [to] not allow somebody who has re-organized schools, rebuilt schools- It's called federal bureaucracy. That's all it's about."

Reminded that the federal education bureaucracy is now run by Duncan - whom Daley appointed to head CPS before he went to Washington - the mayor said, "This is the U.S. Department of Education. . . . You have to understand - 99.9 percent of the people will be there after Obama. Remember that. It's a huge bureaucracy."

Former CPS spokesman Peter Cunningham, now an aide to Duncan, said the decision to exclude Chicago from the presentation was "entirely a state decision."

"Other states around the country brought [local] districts along for their presentation. New York brought [superintendent] Joel Klein. D.C. brought Michelle Rhee. We had nothing to do with that decision. That was Illinois' decision," he said.

Matt Vanover, a spokesman for the State Board of Education, said it made sense for the state to make the presentation because "only states were eligible to apply" for Race to the Top funding.

"The presentation was about the state's plan for reform, so the state was responsible for making that presentation. CPS was not eligible to apply for it. CPS did not have a plan to present," Vanover said.

"I don't know that there was a decision to exclude Chicago. I'm not aware that CPS asked to be part of the presentation. This was a statewide plan with statewide representatives. You had [City Clerk] Miguel del Valle, an advocate for Chicago, on the team to defend the plan. And Arne Duncan is very familiar with CPS and the changes going on there."