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Illinois named ‘Race to the Top’ finalist
By ASHLEY BADGELY
Special GOCOM Media
Contribution by Sean Jenkins, WSJ
SPRINGFIELD — President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top competition is down to 15 states
and the District of Columbia; finalists were announced Thursday by Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan.
Illinois is one of those finalists for federal funding to pay for education reform. However,
winners will not be chosen until early April and Duncan said he is not yet sure how many
winners there will be. Duncan said that no more than $2 billion will be given to the winners of
the Race to the Top competition during this first round.
“I cannot say how many winners there are going to be, but we are setting a high bar and we
are anticipating very few winners in round one,” Duncan said. “It is a function of the strength of
the application and I can assure everyone there will be plenty of money left over for the second
round.”
The second round of finalists will be chosen in June, Duncan said. Forty states and the District
of Columbia applied in the first round. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn released a statement in
response to the announcement.
“A fulfilling and top-notch education for all Illinois students is our No. 1 priority, and we are in a
great position to take full advantage of this federal funding,” Quinn said in a prepared
statement.
According to the Race to the Top Website, several factors determine a finalist, and ultimately, a
winner. Duncan said he could not discuss why certain states were chosen and others were
not. But he did say when the first round is over, all the states’ applications and critiques will be
presented online, along with the interviews of the final 16 competitors. Any state that receives
the funds must use the money for their education reform plan. If the funds are abused, the
state will lose the money.
“Once [winners] are chosen, we’re going to have to work through with those states and we’re
going to hold them accountable on an ongoing basis,” Duncan said. “We’re not going to give
them all the money upfront. These are multi-year grants. As long as they continue to do good
work, they’ll continue to receive funding and if we see them acting on bad faith and doing
something, we’ll stop funding them and shift those scarce resources to other states that are
doing it the right way.”
Advance Illinois is an advocacy organization that heavily supports Illinois’ Race to the Top
application. Executive Director Robin Steans said having Illinois named a finalist is a “huge
vote of confidence” for educational reform work in the state, but she does not want to get her
hopes up. She said last Thursday’s announcement will keep Illinois high on the list, and even
if Illinois is not selected in the first round, being a finalist now will provide momentum for round
two in June.
Illinois’ application asked for about $500 million from the program, but Steans said she would
be surprised if the federal government handed out the entire $2 billion in the fund.
“I wouldn’t expect to see more that $2 billion handed out,” Steans said. “I’ll be a little surprised
if they give out that much. I believe them when they say it’s going to depend on who some of
the strongest [states] are and are those big or little states.”
State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, who spearheaded the Illinois proposal said, “Race
to the Top provides us with a tremendous opportunity to secure additional funding for public
education in Illinois”. “To be named as a finalist really underscores just how committed we
have been to reforming Illinois’ educational system.”
Over the course of the last year, Lightford has worked closely with school administrators,
teachers, colleagues and the Governor’s office in order to craft legislation that addresses
these areas.
As a result of her efforts, the State of Illinois has instituted measures creating a system to track
and study the best methods of educating students and enabling student performance to play a
role in teacher evaluations. In addition, laws have recently been enacted that expand the cap
on charter schools throughout the state and provide incentives for highly qualified teachers to
relocate and teach in lower achieving schools.
State Sen. James Meeks, D-Chicago, who has worked on several proposals to improve public
education, said Illinois’ status as a finalist is good news, but he has concerns that once the
money is gone, it will be hard to continue programs. “Illinois is becoming used to one-time
revenue,” Meeks said. “Even when Race to the Top comes, we’ll still have to put some revenue
in place to replace those programs.”
Illinois will be invited along with the 15 other finalists to Washington, D.C. later this month to
present proposals to the panel that reviewed their applications in depth during the initial stage,
and to engage in question and answer discussions with the reviewers. After these
presentations, the reviewers will meet to discuss each application, and finalize scores before
submitting them to the Department of Education. The number of winners will be decided by the
strength of the applications.
“It is my hope that the reforms we have enacted will provide us with the foundation to deliver a
strong proposal in Washington ,” Lightford said. “If we are successful, we can use this funding
to make strides toward more equitable education funding and closing the achievement gap.”
By ASHLEY BADGELY
Special GOCOM Media
Contribution by Sean Jenkins, WSJ
SPRINGFIELD — President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top competition is down to 15 states
and the District of Columbia; finalists were announced Thursday by Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan.
Illinois is one of those finalists for federal funding to pay for education reform. However,
winners will not be chosen until early April and Duncan said he is not yet sure how many
winners there will be. Duncan said that no more than $2 billion will be given to the winners of
the Race to the Top competition during this first round.
“I cannot say how many winners there are going to be, but we are setting a high bar and we
are anticipating very few winners in round one,” Duncan said. “It is a function of the strength of
the application and I can assure everyone there will be plenty of money left over for the second
round.”
The second round of finalists will be chosen in June, Duncan said. Forty states and the District
of Columbia applied in the first round. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn released a statement in
response to the announcement.
“A fulfilling and top-notch education for all Illinois students is our No. 1 priority, and we are in a
great position to take full advantage of this federal funding,” Quinn said in a prepared
statement.
According to the Race to the Top Website, several factors determine a finalist, and ultimately, a
winner. Duncan said he could not discuss why certain states were chosen and others were
not. But he did say when the first round is over, all the states’ applications and critiques will be
presented online, along with the interviews of the final 16 competitors. Any state that receives
the funds must use the money for their education reform plan. If the funds are abused, the
state will lose the money.
“Once [winners] are chosen, we’re going to have to work through with those states and we’re
going to hold them accountable on an ongoing basis,” Duncan said. “We’re not going to give
them all the money upfront. These are multi-year grants. As long as they continue to do good
work, they’ll continue to receive funding and if we see them acting on bad faith and doing
something, we’ll stop funding them and shift those scarce resources to other states that are
doing it the right way.”
Advance Illinois is an advocacy organization that heavily supports Illinois’ Race to the Top
application. Executive Director Robin Steans said having Illinois named a finalist is a “huge
vote of confidence” for educational reform work in the state, but she does not want to get her
hopes up. She said last Thursday’s announcement will keep Illinois high on the list, and even
if Illinois is not selected in the first round, being a finalist now will provide momentum for round
two in June.
Illinois’ application asked for about $500 million from the program, but Steans said she would
be surprised if the federal government handed out the entire $2 billion in the fund.
“I wouldn’t expect to see more that $2 billion handed out,” Steans said. “I’ll be a little surprised
if they give out that much. I believe them when they say it’s going to depend on who some of
the strongest [states] are and are those big or little states.”
State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, who spearheaded the Illinois proposal said, “Race
to the Top provides us with a tremendous opportunity to secure additional funding for public
education in Illinois”. “To be named as a finalist really underscores just how committed we
have been to reforming Illinois’ educational system.”
Over the course of the last year, Lightford has worked closely with school administrators,
teachers, colleagues and the Governor’s office in order to craft legislation that addresses
these areas.
As a result of her efforts, the State of Illinois has instituted measures creating a system to track
and study the best methods of educating students and enabling student performance to play a
role in teacher evaluations. In addition, laws have recently been enacted that expand the cap
on charter schools throughout the state and provide incentives for highly qualified teachers to
relocate and teach in lower achieving schools.
State Sen. James Meeks, D-Chicago, who has worked on several proposals to improve public
education, said Illinois’ status as a finalist is good news, but he has concerns that once the
money is gone, it will be hard to continue programs. “Illinois is becoming used to one-time
revenue,” Meeks said. “Even when Race to the Top comes, we’ll still have to put some revenue
in place to replace those programs.”
Illinois will be invited along with the 15 other finalists to Washington, D.C. later this month to
present proposals to the panel that reviewed their applications in depth during the initial stage,
and to engage in question and answer discussions with the reviewers. After these
presentations, the reviewers will meet to discuss each application, and finalize scores before
submitting them to the Department of Education. The number of winners will be decided by the
strength of the applications.
“It is my hope that the reforms we have enacted will provide us with the foundation to deliver a
strong proposal in Washington ,” Lightford said. “If we are successful, we can use this funding
to make strides toward more equitable education funding and closing the achievement gap.”