State awarded $700 million in education funding

Last week, New York state won nearly $700 million in federal Race to the Top money, which will be used by the state for education.

The goal of Race to the Top is to encourage states to reform their schools and curriculums to become more competitive. To do this, states are adopting tougher standards (as evidenced by New York's changing the standards for its state tests), linking teacher evaluations with student performance, tracking student progress better and more.

"I am proud to announce that ... New York state has been awarded $696,646,000 in Race to the Top Round II stimulus education funding," Gov. David Paterson said in a release. "During these difficult economic times, this funding will go a long way to ensure that our state's children are given greater opportunity and access to a quality education. This new funding will help provide the foundation for academic success and the emergence of a new generation of leaders and achievers for New York state."

New York was one of only 10 states, along with the District of Columbia, that was awarded money in the federal Department of Education-run initiative. The other winners were Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island. New York was awarded some of the highest funding -- Florida was the only other state to be awarded nearly $700 million.

"I was confident that if we all came together, we could transform our state's educational policies to enrich the learning experience for all students while bolstering our application for this extremely competitive grant program," said state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Mamaroneck), chairwoman of the Education Committee.

New York lost out on an earlier round of Race to the Top money because the Legislature would not raise the cap on the number of charter schools allowed in the state. The Legislature managed to work together for the second round, raising the charter school cap while passing its other initiatives, including linking teacher evaluations to student performance, something it had to work with teachers' unions to achieve.

Oceanside Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown wasn’t sure how much money would be coming to Oceanside, but felt that the majority of it would most likely be going to the state Education Department as well as New York City.

“I think the money will going to good use, but I don’t think it will be coming to Oceanside in large numbers,” he said. “But if it helps the state, it helps Oceanside indirectly. Because if they hire better math people up in Albany, it might help us by giving us more math support from the state in Oceanside.”

"The goal of the Race to the Top program is to raise student achievement based on innovative reforms," said U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy. "I am pleased to have supported New York state's application, and I am delighted that this funding will be coming into the state. During a time when many local communities are being forced to make cuts in education, this funding will help to ensure that we can improve the quality of our children's education."

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