Back from the brink, cooler heads at the Buffalo school district prevailed on supporting the New York State's application for federal Race to the Top funding, the Buffalo News reported yesterday.

This abrupt reversal on Thursday, 24 hours following Wednesday's embarrassment of a board meeting (here), will now secure the district's share of new federal funding should New York receive an award.

Credit must go to Board member Christopher Jacobs--who has strong charter school roots--who consistently pushed for his colleagues to sign on in support of the state's reform plans which the district stands now to benefit from financially.

Superintendent James Williams, a schizophrenic on education reform, nevertheless also strongly urged the board to sign on, even to the point of berating them at Wednesday's meeting fiasco when it initially refused. That was gutsy. I'm under no illusions Dr. Williams suddenly likes charter schools, nor do I put it past him to return to his scapegoating act of blaming them for the district's financial problems. But Dr. Williams did the right thing on Race to the Top, and the board's majority finally heeded his message.

As for Board President Ralph Hernandez, he's nothing if not confusing. Earlier this week he trashed the state's reform agenda; later in the week he showed willingness to support it; and now he's signed on with the cover of six of his eight fellow board members. Hernandez comes across often as a shill for the Buffalo teachers union, yet as Board President he sometimes rises above it to do the right thing by the district because it is "a very important issue," as he put it.

Love That BTF Chutzpah!
The chutzpah of teacher union president, Phil Rumore, did not disappoint this week. Mr. Rumore was consistent in his opposition the the state's Race to the Top plan, referring to some of it as "insulting." This is consistent with his whole career of opposing much of anything with a whiff of reform and change. Teacher accountability and merit pay just isn't in his DNA, and he refused to sign on in support.

But Rumore wants any financial booty just the same.

In his letter to the Buffalo district, Rumore said that if the district does receive funding, the News reported that his union "feels it will be able to negotiate an agreement with school officials to use the money" for his own agenda of smaller class sizes (more union members) and summer programs (still more union members).

Isn't that big of Phil? He won't taint himself by signing on in support of reform to get new money, but he's willing to sit down and negotiate how that new money gets spent. Hey, the man knows what he wants, even as he trashes the means by which to get it.

Test Looms for Buffalo & State Ed.
The school district and the state Education Department should not give into this two-face mentality of non-supporters who will inevitably clamor for Race to the Top funding this spring for their own narrow, more-of-the-same agenda. Doing so risks turning this whole reform effort by the Regents into a toothless successor of those "Contracts for Excellence" that spent more education money and achieved nothing discernible.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard