Opinion ID: 2509859
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Federal Race to the Top Program

Text: With the support of President Obama and the United States Department of Education, in February 2009, Congress enacted a law providing $4.35 billion for the Race to the Top Fund, a competitive grant program designed to encourage and reward States that are creating the conditions for education innovation and reform; achieving significant improvement in student outcomes, including making substantial gains in student achievement, closing achievement gaps, improving high school graduation rates, and ensuring student preparation for success in college and careers; and implementing ambitious plans in four core education reform areas. http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/ executive-summary.pdf., p. 2. One of the criteria for the grants is [e]nsuring successful conditions for high-performing charter schools and other innovative schools. Id. at p. 11. Among other things, this criterion includes consideration of the extent to which (1) [t]he State has a charter school law that does not prohibit or effectively inhibit increasing the number of high-performing charter schools, (2) the State has laws that encourage charter schools that serve student populations that are similar to local district student populations, especially relative to high-need students, and (3) the State's charter schools receive equitable funding compared to traditional public schools, and a commensurate share of local, State, and Federal revenues. Id. After an unsuccessful first application, Georgia's second application for Race to the Top funds, submitted in June 2010, highlighted in bold print the enactment of the 2008 Charter Schools Commission Act, explaining that it was designed to ensure that charter school applicants have an opportunity to apply to more than one authorizer. http://www2.ed. gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2- applications/georgia.pdf. See also Democrats for Education Reform, Race to the Top Series, # 5: Growing Innovative Charter Schools, p. 4 (June 17, 2009) ( Race to the Top states should have multiple charter school authorizers, so that no one entity can bottleneck the charter school approval process.). One of the application reviewers specifically noted Georgia's strong state Charter School Commission, http://www2.ed. gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2- applications/comments/georgia.pdf, p. 8, and all reviewers gave Georgia a perfect score on this point. See http://www2.ed.gov/ programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/ score-sheets/georgia.pdf. Georgia was ultimately selected to receive $400 million in Race to the Top funding.