HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania will press on with its education reform strategies and apply for the second round of federal Race to the Top grant funding, Gov. Edward G. Rendell and Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak said today.
The state learned today that its application ranked 7th among the 16 finalists competing for the first-round grants announced by the U.S. Department of Education. Tennessee and Delaware received the only first-round grant awards.
“Pennsylvania has been a national leader in education reform over the past decade and will continue to move forward in providing a quality education for all students,” Rendell said. “Our schools, educators, education leaders and state should be extremely proud of the application we put forth and the strategies that we have developed to continue to build on our strong educational foundation.”
“While we were not chosen to receive funds in the first round of awards, it will not deter us from continuing our reform efforts,” Secretary Zahorchak said. “We will take the constructive feedback we expect to receive from the U.S. Department of Education and use it to bolster our vision for education reform for the second phase of Race to the Top, which will begin later this year.”
States that did not receive a first-round award will be eligible to re-apply for round two of the competition in June 2010, which will make available $3.4 billion.
“We will reapply because we are committed to making every effort to access every resource to the fullest benefit of Pennsylvania’s children,” Rendell said.
“Pennsylvania’s education community should be enormously proud of its strong showing in the Race to the Top competition,” State Board of Education Chairman Joseph M. Torsella said. “Our state’s school districts, charter schools, educators, and political leaders have made an historic commitment to reform and we’ll redouble those efforts in the weeks ahead—both in preparation for the second phase of the competition and because Pennsylvania’s kids deserve no less.”
The Race to the Top grant competition represents the largest discretionary funding effort for education reform ever made available by the federal government – a total of $4.3 billion nationwide. The grants are not formula-based.