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The federal government wants to encourage education reform. It’s backing it up with $4.3 billion in stimulus grants to be awarded to the states. But when the proposed guidelines were released recently, they triggered a big debate over whether New York is even eligible. WNYC’s Beth Fertig has more.

The stimulus grants are part of a program called Race to the Top. They’re highly competitive, with only about a dozen states expected to receive funding next year. That’s where the controversy comes in. The U.S. Department of Education has proposed that in order to be eligible, a state can’t have any barriers to using student achievement data, quote, “for the purpose of teacher and principal evaluation.”

Here’s the problem: last year, Albany enacted a law preventing districts from using test scores in teacher tenure decisions.

WEISBERG: It seems to me that the law that is on the books in New York renders it ineligible for Race to the Top.

Dan Weisberg is vice president and general counsel for the New Teacher Project, a non-profit dedicated to teacher quality. Even though the state’s law specifically refers to teacher tenure, he says that’s the same thing as an evaluation.

WEISBERG: What you’re doing at the teacher tenure decision is evaluating the teacher’s performance and deciding whether they are entitled to lifelong job protection.

Weisberg also notes that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan singled out New York, California and Wisconsin for having a firewall in their use of data. But State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch says the law on the books is simply about tenure.

TISCH: There is nothing going forward in New York State law that will preclude teacher evaluations using student assessments and student achievement as a parameter by which to define success.

Teachers say test scores alone aren’t always a fair gauge of whether a student is learning. Their union lobbied heavily for the state law in response to a proposal by the Bloomberg Administration to link tenure to scores. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein had argued test data could show which teachers are most effective when comparing similar classrooms of students.

Tisch says she’s been talking with federal officials about the state’s application for the stimulus funds. The U.S. Department of Education won’t weigh in on the debate publicly. But Tisch notes that the law barring test scores from being used to determine tenure will expire next June, just as the federal dollars start flowing. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.