The U.S. Department of Education announced today, the winners in the first phase of the Race to the Top competition, and Florida is not among them. The states of Delaware and Tennessee were among the states awarded a total of about $600 million which will be used to implement reforms in schools over the next four years.
In response to the announcement that Florida did not qualify for funding in the first round, Florida House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands said he was “saddened” and that the state “missed a unique opportunity to receive significant financial help toward implementing much-needed education reforms.”
It is not clear precisely why Florida’s proposal was rejected, but the state was banking heavily on receiving millions under the initiative to assist in plugging the more than $3.2 billion budget deficit.
Sands believes that Florida’s failure to be selected in the first round of funding has to do in part with the sweeping legislation to the education sector that the Republican- controlled House of Representatives is pushing through in Tallahassee.
“Ruling-party Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives have proposed an education budget for next year that would yield the lowest per-student funding Florida has seen since 2005. Additionally, there also are numerous draconian bills that would hurt our public schools,” Sands said. He added, “In these hard economic times, we cannot afford to miss real opportunities to develop true education reforms that would benefit Florida’s students, teachers, families, and our state’s economy.”
Florida was among 15 states that advanced as a finalists for phase 1 of the Race to the Top Competition.
Race to the Top is the Department’s $4.4 billion effort to dramatically re-shape America’s educational system to better engage and prepare students for success in a competitive 21st century economy and workplace.
