The State of Virginia loses out on a $45 million dollars education grant.
Va. not pursuing $45 million Race to the Top grant
McDonnell spokesman cites tight time frame, waning administration
BY OLYMPIA MEOLA Richmond Times-Dispatch
Virginia is skipping the latest round of a competitive federal education grant that could have meant millions of dollars for early childhood learning.
The state was eligible to receive up to $45 million through the most recent round of the Race to the Top grant program.
A spokesman for Gov. Bob McDonnell gave a series of reasons for not applying, including a tight time frame, the chance that Virginia could be stuck with costs beyond the four-year program and the waning administration.
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell decided against pursuing the Race To the Top funds.
The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant is focused on improving the quality of early learning and development programs, and closing the achievement gap for children with high needs, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
About half of Virginia’s 3- to 4-year-olds were not enrolled in nursery school or preschool as of 2009-11, according to the Kids Count report from Voices for Virginia’s Children, based on Census Bureau data.
Nicole Dooley, an attorney for JustChildren with the Legal Aid Justice Center, recently addressed the Virginia Board of Education about the grant program. In a copy of her prepared remarks, she says the grant sounds “tailor-made to provide more resources” to improve upon the state’s Virginia Preschool Initiative, “so that we can serve the at-risk children who are currently shut out of the system.”
Virginia was unsuccessful in a previous try for a Race to the Top grant and eventually quit rather than drop the state’s Standards of Learning.
This time, the grant was announced at the end of August and applications are due Wednesday.
“Further compressing the timeline was the need to review the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant to determine whether the factors that led to Virginia’s prior decisions not to apply remained in this latest round,” McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said in a statement.
He said the grant appeared intended for states that were already under way in the process and that the timing was difficult because the grant would commit the next governor “to a major initiative requiring a significant commitment of staff time and resources lasting the duration of his administration.”
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