Wisconsin won’t get any Race to the Top money

Wisconsin will not be tapping into $250-million dollars in education grants. The state failed to place among 19 finalists for the national “Race to the Top” competitions second round announced last week.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the finalists in a conference call. Nearby Illinois and Ohio made the list, but Wisconsin did not. There was no immediate feedback on why some states didn’t become finalists, but Secretary Duncan put a positive take on the outcome for all competitors. He says while everybody would like the money, “everybody’s going to be moving forward regardless. The money unleashes innovation across the country, and leadership will be driven by local schools.”

Mary Bell of the Wisconsin Education Association Council says this latest news is a let-down, but education reform can still march on. WEAC and the governor’s office say there’s $43-million in Recovery Act money coming to the struggling Milwaukee Public School system.

In a statement, Gov. Doyle said it was “pretty clear” that the U.S. Education Department failed to take the quality of Wisconsin’s educational system into account. Doyle noted that other states recognized for strong schools like Minnesota and Iowa were also absent from the list of finalists.

Tags: daily updates, news, wisconsin, education, schools, funding