On May 25, 2011 the U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued two press releases regarding the $700 million Race to the Top (RTT) appropriation provided by Congress in the FY 2011 budget bill passed on April 14th. One press release announced that $200 million of the RTT allocation will be used to fund a third round of the RTT competition initiated under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The other press release announced that the remaining $500 million will be used to launch a new RTT-Early Learning Challenge.
Applications for the third round of the RTT competition will be available in the fall and awards will be granted by December 31, 2011. The nine state RTT finalists that did not win awards in the first two rounds will be eligible to apply in the third round. The eligible states are AZ, CA, CO, IL, KY, LA, PA, NJ and SC. The amounts of the individual awards will range from $10 million to $50 million, depending upon state size and the final number of grants. Since the grant amounts for the third round will be significantly less than those for the first two rounds, states will be allowed to work with ED to scale down their initial RTT proposals. According to the press release, ED is using the award competition to support states that have the capacity and commitment to address the Obama administration’s four core education reforms: (1) Raising academic standards; (2) building cradle to career data systems; (3) investing in great teachers and leaders; and (4) turning around persistently low-performing schools. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is quoted as saying “We’re committed to working with the states that are the most serious about education reform.” The press release stated that the Secretary praised Congress for supporting RTT and stated that the Obama Administration has proposed to continue RTT in FY 2012, including a school district-level competition.
In a separate press release Secretary Duncan, in conjunction with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, announced the launch of a $500 million RTT-Early Learning Challenge as a new grant competition for states. The Early Learning Challenge is intended to “reward states that create comprehensive plans to transform early learning systems with better coordination, clearer learning standards, and meaningful workforce development.” The Challenge will be jointly administered by ED and DHHS. The application form will be released in the summer and awards will be announced by December 31, 2011. Program guidance, eligibility, range of awards and the number of awards will be announced in the coming weeks.
