Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s initiative to have New York school districts compete for a portion of state aid has sparked little interest and distributed little money, a report finds.
Fewer than one in 10 districts applied for the grants, and only $17 million of a possible $50 million was awarded, according to the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal-watchdog group. The grant process is too confusing, and the awards too small, to encourage participation, it said.
Only 40 of the more than 700 districts across the state won grants. Seventy schools applied for the performance grants, and 38 applied for management awards.
The Cuomo administration attributed the low participation to the requirement that applicants have a teacher-evaluation plan in place; many did not at the time the applications were due.
