"Race to the Top" Winners Chosen
The winners of the Department of Education's "Race to the Top" initiative have been announced:
ATLANTA — More than 13 million students and 1 million educators will share $3.4 billion from the second round of the federal "Race to the Top" grant competition, the U.S. Education Department said Tuesday.
The department chose nine states — Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island — and the District of Columbia for the grants. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 25,000 schools will get money to raise student learning and close the achievement gap.
The "Race to the Top" program, part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, rewards states for taking up ambitious changes to improve struggling schools. The competition instigated a wave of reforms across the country, as states passed new teacher accountability policies and lifted caps on charter schools to boost their chances of winning.
"These states show what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children," Duncan said in a conference call with reporters. "Every state that applied showed a tremendous amount of leadership and a bold commitment to education reform. The creativity and innovation in each of these applications is breathtaking."
In the first round of the contest in the spring, just two states were winners — Tennessee and Delaware — and they scored more than 440 out of a possible 500 points. In this round, Duncan said all 10 winners scored more than 440 points, showing improvement in the applications.
He said the department wanted to choose more winners but "simply ran out of money."
For the winners, the grants mean a cash infusion at a time when education funding is dwindling, forcing teacher layoffs and program reductions. The awards range from $75 million for Rhode Island and D.C. to $700 million for New York.
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