CONTINUING EDUCATION WITH PROFESSOR WILLIE SUTTON

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton, a prolific bank robber of the 1920s and 1930s, replied by saying, "because that's where the money is."

On Tuesday, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the latest states to win the Race to the Top competition — and a share of $3.4 billion in federal financing — he said they were chosen because they outlined the boldest plans for shaking up their public school systems.

But others noted another common denominator: geography. Of the dozen states that have won major grants to date in the two-part grant contest that is the Obama administration’s signature education initiative, 11 are east of the Mississippi and most hug the East Coast, including Florida and Georgia in the South and New York and Massachusetts in the North. Among the winners, Hawaii is the lone geographic exception.

Educators in many of the states that did not win, or did not even participate in the competition criticized the competition’s rules saying that they were tilted in favor of densely populated Eastern states. To these critics, Willie Sutton, were he still alive, would surely have responded, well that's where the students are.

Asked whether he was concerned that almost all of the winning states were Eastern, Mr. Duncan noted that Geography was irrelevant in the selection process.”

In fact, some rules governing other federal education money are stacked in favor of largely rural states. For example, most federal education money flows to states, using formulas that give rural ones more federal financing per student than their big urban counterparts.

Those disgruntled educators can take a lesson from old Willie. If you want to invest in education you have to invest where the students are. Isn't continuing education a wonderful thing?