May 30, 2011

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius jointly announced on March 26 a new $500 million state-level grant competition, the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge.

“To win the future, our children need a strong start,” said Duncan. “The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge encourages states to develop bold and comprehensive plans for raising the quality of early learning programs across America.”

“This Challenge represents the Obama Administration’s commitment to helping vulnerable children and families reach their full potential,” said Sebelius. “Our collective health and financial security as a nation will depend on high quality investments during the critical early years of a child’s life.”

The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge will reward states that create comprehensive plans to transform early learning systems with better coordination, clearer learning standards, and meaningful workforce development. Duncan and Sebelius also challenged the broader innovation community—leading researchers, high-tech entrepreneurs, foundations, non-profits and others—to engage with the early learning community and to close the school readiness gap.

States applying for challenge grants will be encouraged to increase access to quality early learning programs for low income and disadvantaged children, design integrated and transparent systems that align their early care and education programs, bolster training and support for the early learning workforce, create robust evaluation systems to document and share effective practices and successful programs, and help parents make informed decisions about care for their children.

The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grants will encourage states to make the best possible use of current federal and state investments in child care and early learning. The Obama Administration has sought and secured increased investments in Head Start and childcare so that more families have access to quality, affordable care, while also pursuing important reforms such as requiring Head Start grantees to compete for continued funding. The administration has also steered resources towards evidence-based, cost-effective home visiting programs.

The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge will be administered jointly by the Department of Education (DOE) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). DOE will provide guidance, eligibility, range of awards and number of grants in the coming weeks. The application will be released later this summer with grants awarded to states no later than December 31.

DOE also announced that nine finalist states that did not win grants in the first two rounds of Race to the Top will be eligible to compete for $200 million in additional funds this year. Applications will be available in the early fall.

The nine states, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and South Carolina, can seek grants ranging from $10 million to $50 million, depending on state size and the final number of grants. Given that these grants are smaller than the ones originally applied for, states will work with DOE to update their Race to the Top plans to reflect a more limited scope of work.

“Every state that applied for Race to the Top funds now has a blueprint for raising educational quality across America,” said Duncan. “These funds will encourage states to continue their courageous work to challenge the status quo and build on the momentum for education reform happening in our classrooms, schools and communities.”

DOE chose to make the $200 million available in a competition among Race to the Top finalists in order to support states that have demonstrated capacity and commitment around bold reform plans that address the Obama Administration’s four core reforms: raising academic standards, building cradle to career data systems, investing in great teachers and leaders, and turning around persistently low-performing schools.

The Obama Administration has also proposed to continue Race to the Top in fiscal year 2012 and is seeking authority to develop a district-level competition.