After Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave the Christina school board in Delaware a public reprimand last week for going back on its Race to the Top promises, the board voted during a Saturday meeting to reaffirm its commitment to carry out the state’s reform plans.

The board voted to go back to its original plan for turning around its lowest-performing schools, which means replacing some of the teaching staff. The district earlier had voted to backtrack on those plans, which prompted the Delaware Department of Education to freeze the district’s Race to the Top funds and Duncan to admonish the district.

Duncan’s public scolding of the district marked the first time he’s had to take sides in any state-local Race to the Top arguments. Surely he did so in an attempt to head off any other attempts by states or districts to backtrack on the promises that won them a grant in the first place. We’ll see if it works.