No ‘Race to the Top’ Money for Michigan

As if Michigan didn’t already have enough bad financial news to deal with, Washington deals some more.

It has to do with the Department of Education’s ‘Race to the Top’ program.

40 states, plus the District of Columbia, applied for the more than $4 billion worth of stimulus money.

The DOE announced the 15 state finalists earlier today, and Michigan isn’t one of them.

This makes cuts to K-through-12 education much more likely, unless Michigan can get lucky with Round 2 of the ‘Race to the Top’ program.

Applications for that are due in June.

The winners should be announced in September — Round 1 winners will be out next month.

The only states that can’t apply for Round 2 funding are the states that end up winning money in Round 1.

‘Race to the Top’ is going to states that commit to vast reforms of their educational system.

The idea is to better engage and prepare students for success in the workplace.