Georgia vies for federal education dollars

The race for federal education funding is under way in Georgia, and state leaders hope money comes in by this fall.

"We still need to await details from Washington about how these funds can be used and the process for receiving this funding," Georgia Department of Education spokesman Dana Tofig said in an e-mail.

"We don't know a whole lot of specifics yet," Bert Brantley, spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, said Monday. "There may be an initial set of states that will get some funding, and obviously we hope we'd be in that first block."

Last week, Gov. Perdue and 21 other governors attended an annual education symposium in North Carolina, where U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan discussed the Race for the Top initiative.

The program is part of President Barack Obama's federal stimulus plan -- the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 -- and requires states to compete for $4.35 billion in grants to improve education through data-driven instruction and higher standards.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, Race for the Top grants will be made in two phases, first one this fall and again in spring 2010.

The grants provide incentives for schools to adopt college and career-ready benchmark standards, which is what Georgia has been doing over the past six years, state schools Superintendent Kathy Cox said.

"Georgia has been focused on implementing a world-class curriculum, raising expectations and using quality data to make decisions," she said in a prepared statement.

In 2005, state officials began rolling out a more rigorous set of performance standards. The new benchmarks are aligned with what national leaders have in mind for the future of education.

Whether students reach those goals will be determined by the state's Criterion Reference Competency Tests, given each year to grades one through eight.

But Georgia Association of Educators President Jeff Hubbard said that, although the new standards are more rigorous and a step in the right direction, they still don't allow teachers to tailor teachings to fit the students.

"It is hard for curriculums to provide differentiated instruction because they are having to teach to test," he said.

As Georgia finishes rolling out its new standards, Gov. Perdue has started to support nationalizing education standards, which is in line with Mr. Duncan's plans to put the nation's students on par with others around the world.

At last week's education symposium, Mr. Duncan said that stimulus funding will be used to create higher standards and assessments and that 46 states and three territories have committed to creating common internationally benchmarked college and career-ready standards.

Rep. Jay Neal, R-LaFayette said that, although he isn't very familiar with details about plans to create national standards, he is wary of it.

"I want to take a serious look at what they are doing," he said. "I'm very leery of more nationalization."