Monday, June 15, 2009

Deadlines Announced for Race to the Top Grants

The schedule for Race to the Top Grants has been announced and if Kemtucky is going to compete in the first round of funding, it appears the state will need legislation on charter schools during the special session. There will be a second round of funding for those less nimble states that respond slowly - and apparently nothing for those that fail to respond.

December: Phase 1 applications will be due.
March 2010: Phase 1 grants awarded, winners announced.
June 2010: Phase 2 applications will be due.
September 2010: Phase 2 grants awarded, winners announced.

This from Politics K-12:

The U.S. Department of Education has now laid out very specific deadlines for states vying for a piece of the Race to the Top fund, a pool of discretionary economic-stimulus money that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will get to dole out to the states. Billed as a "national competition," the grants will be distributed in two rounds—to give states that miss out the first time around a crack at the second phase.

Applications will be due in December and June. So states that have charter school caps, for instance, have a year (as Duncan might say) to get their act together and lift those caps!

It looks like these deadlines will apply only to the $4 billion in state grants, not to the $350 million that's been set aside for new assessments, nor for the $650 million in innovation grants available to school districts and nonprofit groups.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Richard, Is there any likelihood of such charter school legislation being passed by the legislature?

Richard Day said...

After resisting NCLB, and at least thinking about rejecting federal funding, Kentucky bent and accepted the money and NCLB's onerous assessment requirements - which in my opinion led to the ultimate rejection of CATS.

This time the money is greater and the downside is localized, and smaller.

My guess is, Yes, For the legislature, dollars make sense. A couple of key members sounded open to a discussion yesterday.

Unfortunately, it appears Kentucky will miss the first round of funding, but my bet is we'll be ready by June.