Blogs:

The state that wins the race to the top could receive $200 to $400 million as funds for their public schools. The challenge posed by President Obama is shaping up to be an interesting race with States seeing a lot of pushing by legislators to bring about valuable changes to be one among the qualifiers for the Federal aid to the tune of $4.35 billion coming in January 2010.

American states that show a keen innovation in bringing about a significant improvement in their educational performance and infrastructure will be rewarded by this program that is popularly known as the “Race to the Top” program. Especially since states are hard up for cash, the January 19th deadline for applicants is being taken very seriously and worked upon with a lot of motivation.

As is evident in the website of this program, schools must qualify for the following in order to be awarded this money –

1.    To fine tune methods of assessment and setting standards that will equip students to pass out successfully from college and also be equipped to handle challenges in the workplace in order to be competitive in global economy.

2.    To measure the success and growth of students by building effective data systems and also to keep the principal and teachers informed on how effectively they can improve methods of instruction.

3.    To retain, develop and reward principals and teachers, especially now when their services are invaluable.

4.    To work on under performing schools and turn them around

Names of States that win this race will benefit from the grant money and the winners will be announced in the month of April. The funds thus obtained will be used for further improving the public schools in the State.

In order to be selected in the first phase of this scheme, States such as Illinois are taking vast measures. There is a strong effort to focus on making the public education strong right from pre-kindergarten up to the graduate school by Governors who have gone to the extent of appointing a task force for this purpose.

In an effort to boost their bid, Governors have doubled the number of charter schools and have also been effectively collaborating with other states to set standards in Math and English that is much above the average.

There are other states that are still in the initial stages of preparation. States like New Jersey have only recently woken up after missing out on the application process during the first phase. Now they are much closer to the deadline and have to really work over time to get their proposals ready.

Funding that is not properly channelized has resulted in a lot of educational institutions across the country struggling to cope, especially as the enrolments are rising beyond expectations. An effective legislation is required to ensure proper channelling of funds and to make sure the entire process is not rushed or irregular. This reality show between state governments is interesting and we can only wait to see who actually wins the race to the top.