On Tuesday California schools lost their chance to win $700 million from the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program, $4.35 billion in grants aimed at improving the nation’s schools.
California reached the competition’s second round, making it one of the 19 finalists before being eliminated on Tuesday.
The state scored 423.6 points out of a 500 from peer reviewers finishing in 16th place. Nine states and the District of Columbia won the second round. The winning states that collected awards ranging from $75 million to $700 million were: Massachusetts, New York, Hawaii, Florida, Rhode Island, Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio. Delaware and Tennessee were awarded money in the first round.
United Educators of San Francisco president Dennis Kelly said Tuesday in a news release: “Race to the Top was never a good fit for California’s students, and would have done more harm than good. This stands in stark contrast to the $26 billion education jobs bill that President Obama signed on August 10th. Because of this important bill, California will ultimately receive up to $1.2 billion to rehire laid off staff and restore school days cut because of the state budget crisis.”
