Another shot of federal Race to the Top education funding is coming Delaware's way.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday that Delaware is one of nine states to earn a share of $500 million in Race to the Top money targeting early childhood learning. Over the next four years Delaware will receive just under $50 million from the latest federal RTTT grant competition, the Early Learning Challenge. That is the full amount Delaware requested to fund its early childhood initiatives.
"Through the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grants, [Delaware and the other 8 winners] will lead the way in transforming early learning services and programs from a patchwork of disconnected programs with uneven quality into integrated systems that truly and consistently prepare children for success in school and in life," said Secretary Duncan.
"We're excited because it’s going to enable us to enhance and accelerate our early education plan," said Governor Jack Markell (D).
Delaware earns Race to the Top early childhood learning money
Reaction to Delaware receiving nearly $50 million for early childhood learning initiatives
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Gov. Markell said he believes Delaware was chosen in part because of the commitment it has already made to early childhood education. Last spring the General Assembly approved Markell's plan to allocate $22 million in unanticipated state revenue for early education initiatives, including $10 million to further develop the state's Delaware Stars for Early Success quality-rating program for early learning providers.
"When we made that proposal in the spring, we didn't know about this Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge program, " said Markell, speaking in front of students, teachers, and others at the Hilltop Lutheran Day Care Center in Wilmington. "I'm highly confident that the investment we made in the spring was a critical factor when the federal government analyzed all the applications, because we showed even before they announced the Race to the Top program that we were going to put our money where our mouths are, and, more importantly, we are going to put our money where these beautiful children are."
Vivian Rapposelli, Secretary of Delaware's Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families, called the grant "a game changer" that adds momentum to existing efforts to improve early childhood education.
"The wish list is there, and we know what we want to do to," said Rapposelli. "Now we think we can do it even better with the additional money."
Rapposelli said she believes that having the Stars quality-rating program already in place was a major asset to Delaware's application. During Friday’s announcement, Secretary Sebelius emphasized quality assessment.
The winners “are creating and strengthening systems to assess the quality of thousands of early learning programs and communicate that assessment to parents so they can make informed choices about their children's education experience," she said.
Delaware is now a two-time Race to the Top funding recipient. It previously won RTTT funds in 2010, winning $119 million, along with Tennessee, in the first round of competition for grants to improve K-12 education.
The First State is one of five states to win Race to the Top funds for a second time. Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, and Rhode Island also earned early education grants after winning Race to the Top grants in the second round of funding competition for K-12 education earlier this year. California, Minnesota, and Washington also were on the list of early education funding winners announced Friday. Thirty-seven states competed for the early childhood education funds.