Senate Bill 441

In my second post on Pennsylvania's Race to the Top, I wrote on why Pennsylvania lost. I repeatedly mentioned Senate Bill 441, which among other things would have allowed approved alternative routes to certify teachers, thereby limiting traditional routes stranglehold licensing teachers, a notorious cash crop for them. Specifically, I wrote that:

...the stalled passage of State Bill 441 directly caused 10.6 of the 42.6 points to be lost in sub-criteria D1... the application comments state, 'yet despite votes in the house and senate that were overwhelmingly supportive of technical aspects of the bill subsequent senate/house reconciliation held up its passage. Because the law has yet to be passed and could still be a victim of politics medium points are awarded.' And the reviewers then withheld further points, and rightly so: the bill already was a victim of politics—why should they believe it wouldn’t later on?

Well, so what happened with the bill?

On November 22, it was presented to the governor-- completely stripped of any language that was promised at the time of the Race to the Top application. Take a look for yourself. Absolutely everything of any substance is gone, but at least some doctors can now sign some new forms.

Earlier I sent an email to Senator Vance, the sponsor of the bill, inquiring that "I have been following senate bill 441, and I was wondering at what point all language relating to alternative routes to certification was stripped from the bill and why it was done." We'll see if she responds.

What is sad here is that the application reviewers were completely right-- SB 441 went from something promising to something else altogether, further vindicating the decision NOT to award Pennsylvania any Race to the Top money.