Ohio has been named one of 19 finalists in the second round of the federal “Race to the Top” school reform grant competition which comes with a chance to win a share of $3.4 billion.
Ohio hopes to secure $400 million and will learn by Sept. 1 if it is selected.
The finalists are invited to make a presentation to a panel of reviewers selected by the U.S. Department of Education during the week of Aug. 9.
The competition rewards ambitious reforms aimed at improving struggling schools and closing the achievement gap. A dozen Montgomery County districts would receive nearly $10.9 million in combined funding if Ohio is selected.
Dayton Public Schools would receive $6.4 million over four years and Kettering City Schools would get $676,436.
Kettering Superintendent Jim Schoenlein said the district has had to cut $10 million from its budget in the last five years.
“We have no shortages of where we could use that money,” he said.
Other states named as finalists include Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Carolina. The District of Columbia also is a finalist.
Ohio was among 16 states named as finalists during the first round but finished 10th. Two states, Tennessee and Delaware, were awarded a total of $600 million in the first round.
“We are very pleased to hear Ohio was, again, a Race to the Top finalist, and we are very proud of the work accomplished by numerous individuals and organizations who helped craft Ohio’s Round 2 application,” Gov. Ted Strickland and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Deborah Delisle said in a statement.
The Race to the Top fund, part of President Obama’s overall economic stimulus plan, is considered the largest pot of discretionary funding for K-12 education reform in the nation’s history.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said 35 states and the District of Columbia submitted blueprints for reform but the finalists have “the boldest plans.”
Ohio increased the number of participating school districts and charter schools to 537 from the 480 that were part of the first round. The schools would share more than $200 million of the $400 million requested in Ohio’s application, with the remaining funds used to develop statewide initiatives.
Ohio’s goals include increasing high school graduation rates, reducing the gap between Ohio and the best performing states in the nation by 50 percent and more than doubling the projected increase in college enrollment of students 19 and younger.
Participating school districts and charter schools agreed to implement initiatives that fall within the priorities of Race to the Top. If Ohio is selected, the next step would be for those districts to form teams containing administrators, teachers and board members to come up with a detailed plan for how they would accomplish the work.
Strickland and Delisle said because so many districts and charter schools agreed to be part of the effort by signing a memorandum of understanding, more than half of Ohio’s students will be participants in our efforts should Ohio receive funding.
Of those students participating, the award would impact 81.5 percent of African-American students, 73 percent of Hispanic students, and 66.3 percent of economically disadvantaged students statewide, state officials said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2094 or mkissell@DaytonDailyNews.com.
