State attorney general: Texas Education Agency can keep massive grant application confidential
by Lynn Walsh on Mar.29, 2010, under What's New
A story written for Texas Watchdog:
State attorney general: Texas Education Agency can keep massive grant application confidential
Thu Mar 25 20:39:23 2010 CST
By Lynn WalshWhat does 800 hours of grant writing look like? You’ll just have to keep wondering.
According to an article by the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday, the Texas Education Agency does not have to release its application for a federal “Race to the Top” grant, which is funded through stimulus money. TEA never submitted the grant because Gov. Rick Perry prohibited the agency from competing for the federal money back in January.
Abbott’s office said TEA does not have to release the document because the state education agency is planning on applying for round two funding; releasing the grant, the AG’s office said, “could put Texas at a competitive disadvantage.”
The U.S. Department of Education has already posted first-round Race to the Top applications on its Web site. Applications submitted by 40 states and Washington, D.C., are already available online; so, can Texas be put at a competitive disadvantage if other states’ applications are already viewable?
And after spending around 800 hours on the application, doesn’t the public deserve a look or at least a peek at it? The Texas AG doesn’t think so.
