HARRISBURG – State Rep. Camille “Bud” George, D-74 of Clearfield County, said that the state Department of Education is awarding grants totaling more than $1.8 million to local school districts through the Keystones to Opportunity (KtO) grant program.
“This is great news for our students,” George said. “Grant programs like this are a welcomed moment of reprieve as schools brace for a second year of education cuts in the budget.”
KtO grants are made possible as a result of Pennsylvania’s award of $38 million through the federal Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Program grant. The commonwealth has identified three keystones to opportunity:
• Improving literacy learning outcomes and dramatically increasing reading achievement among students in danger of academic failure;
• Creating a culture of data-driven decision making by supporting implementation on Bernhardt’s Multiple Measures Data logic model at the state, regional and local levels; and,
• Infusing digital technology and Universal Design for Learning that provides teachers with examples of how technology tools can provide multiple pathways to express and represent information.
“These programs are meant to improve rates of literacy among our children,” George said.
Five local school districts will receive grant money through the program. They are:
• Clearfield Area School District, $70,258;
• Curwensville Area School District, $365,004
• Glendale School District, $652,176;
• Harmony Area School District, $119,018; and
• Philipsburg-Osceola School District, $654,514.
“I’m happy to see this money coming into Clearfield County and going toward our students,” George said. “It is a sad fact that there are still children across the commonwealth who read and write at levels below their grade levels, and programs like this are here to help give those kids a chance at success.”