Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today applauded the announcement from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that California has been selected as a finalist for Race to the Top Phase Two. A winning application for California could provide up to $700 million in much-needed funding to our schools through the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act).

 

“California’s Race to the Top Phase Two application lays out a roadmap for the future of public education in California that empowers parents, embraces accountability, transforms under-performing schools and ensures effective teachers and principals for each student,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “I am very pleased that the bold reforms being made by our school leaders to improve education for all students have been recognized by the Obama administration."

 

Under the federal Race to the Top Phase Two guidelines, state education officials will be invited during the week of August 9, 2010 to defend California’s Race to the Top Phase Two application before the U.S. Department of Education’s peer reviewers selected to judge the competition. Final award announcements for Race to the Top Phase Two will be made in September 2010.

 

California’s Race to the Top Phase Two application was developed by a working group of local school district superintendents committed to the reforms outlined as part of the Race to the Top goals. The state's detailed plan in the application addresses the stated federal goals of Race to the Top, including requiring both teacher and principal evaluations to be based in part on student performance, ensuring effective teachers and principals are placed in low-performing and high-poverty schools and using robust data to improve student achievement to turn around low-performing schools.

 

In addition to the working group of superintendents (Clovis, Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Sanger and San Francisco unified school districts), California’s application was joined by more than 100 school districts and more than 200 charter schools – representing a total of more than 1.7 million California students.

 

On July 24, 2009, President Obama and Secretary Duncan announced federal eligibility and competitiveness requirements for states to compete for $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funding. At the time, California was ineligible to apply. Governor Schwarzenegger took immediate action, calling a special session of the legislature and introducing a bi-partisan legislative package to ensure California could become eligible and highly competitive for this education funding. Since then, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the legislation necessary to make California eligible to apply and historic education reform legislation to ensure California would be highly competitive for up to $700 million in education dollars for California’s schools.