South Dakota Not Racing to the Top

South Dakota state government has finally met federal money it doesn't like (small cheer from the Curd camp, right, R. Blake?). After finishing last among 41 states that applied for Round 1 of the "Race to the Top" education grants, South Dakota is saying "No thanks" to Round 2. Secretary of Education Tom Oster says we won't even apply. Oster says he doesn't want to rush implementation of statewide curriculum standards just to meet the second application deadline. He also notes our chances of qualifying for the "Race to the Top" dollars are pretty much nil without charter school legislation (no big loss there) or rules linking student test scores with teacher pay and tenure.

Now if we could just get Pierre to opt out of No Child Left Behind... which hasn't done much good in South Dakota.