Updated Monday morning to include Orlando Sentinel link
This is just a bulletin about this breaking news as of Midnight, Thursday, March 4. California was skipped from consideration for Obama's "Race to the Top" Education funding competition, but Florida and 14 other states, plus Washington DC were selected.
This is the first round of selections, and interestingly, almost all the states selected are on the east coast, according to a map in the Orlando Sentinel this morning.
But, don't be surprised if there is some frantic lobbying, and maybe other states are added to the finalist list.
The Orlando Sentinel article is HERE, so read it or the other articles below for details.
Now, the next step is for Federal grant reviewers to
listen to representatives from each finalist state.
Florida's proposal includes moving teachers more to merit pay and away from pay by seniority, which will be controversial among the teacher unions. But, this is also supported by Obama, so we might actually see it in our lifetimes.
If Florida does end up being a winner, then we have to know whether Lake County's School District automatically shares in the pot or whether Lake County must compete to be selected within Florida to get some of the funds. The School District did put together an application earlier, so they are in the running, and they have an experienced grant writing team, so we should be competitive.
And, watch for Charlie Crist to try and say he got the funds once we get them...
vj
The Wall Street Journal article is HERE. They also have some neat charts
Here is a collection of links from a Google Search and they should be updated tomorrow (Friday) - these are mostly West Coast newspapers.
