Destination of Race funding up in air

By the end of September, $400 million in federal Race to the Top funding will be allocated to Georgia, but a breakdown of how the money will be divided still is up in the air, state officials say.

"The only thing we know for sure is that half will come to the state and half will come to the districts," Gov. Sonny Perdue's spokesman, Bert Brantley, said of the distribution among the 26 state school systems that signed agreements to participate in Race to the Top reforms.

"Even the funds that 'come to the state' still will be targeted and focused in those 26 districts," Brantley said. "But it's impossible at this point to put any kind of dollar amount on each county."

Dade County, in Georgia's northwest corner, was one of three districts added to the 23 systems competing in the first-round application because of its demographics and to align those systems' federal School Improvement Grants with Race to the Top reforms, state officials said.

The 26 districts' $200 million half of the pot divided evenly gives each system about $7.7 million, though officials say many factors will figure into the actual funding breakdown. States have a four-year project period to implement their plans and spend the money, officials said.

Dade Board of Education Chairwoman Carolyn Bradford said even a fraction of $7.7 million is an exciting proposition for Dade's effort to improve its schools.

Bradford said she wants to study how first-round systems in Tennessee and Delaware handled their allotments as Georgia educators start planning.

She said she expects Race to the Top funding to work similar to the School Improvement Grant awarded recently to Dade County High School for targeting problem areas such as math and language. Dade also is breaking ground in piloting new evaluation systems, she said.

A teacher effectiveness measure piloted by the Atlanta, Dade, Gwinnett and Peach school districts is intended to create a system for measuring student gains from one year to another - a measure also known as "value-added" - to examine how teachers perform in the classroom.

Brantley said Race to the Top money also will fund improvements such as adding graduation coaches and for turning around some of the lowest-achieving schools in the 26 districts.

Georgia will work with federal education officials to define the state's reform targets and funding after the money is allocated in September, he said.

The state "will be primarily focused in the 26 districts," he said. "But there will be some spill-over benefit for every district and every student in Georgia."

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