Kentucky Tries Again For Race To The Top Grant

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) expects to hear this week whether the state will be awarded a Race to the Top consolation grant.KDE learned last week that it will not receive any of the $500 million of federal funding for early childhood education. Kentucky is now one of seven states, which have failed to win a grant in the first two phases that will potentially share some of the $200 million available in phase three, said Lisa Gross, spokeswoman with the Kentucky Department of Education.“The states that were invited to apply for phase three of Race to the Top did have very deep, very good applications they just weren’t quite good enough to receive funding for phase one or phase two,” Gross said.Last week, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced winners California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina , Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington state for early childhood education grants. Duncan said this week the department would be making another announcement of phase three funding. Kentucky may expect to win around $17 million, said Gross. The amount is based on population in the state.“The amount of money we are set to receive is quite a bit less than we would have received if we had been successful in round one or round two. We originally request $175 million in those two rounds, each,” she said.Third phase grants will not be applied to early childhood, but will support school improvements.