newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

This year’s Race to the Top program saw 35 states apply for the opportunity to win between $50 and $100 million in education funding. Nine states were selected, but New Jersey was not one of them.

New Jersey had planned to use a rating system to improve early childhood center programs for 75,000 children of families with low-income, and was hoping to receive $60 million. California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington were awarded the funding on Friday.

According to NorthJersey.com, the goal of Race to the Top is to help states to build more and better early education programs, such as child care, Head Start centers, and public or private preschools. Reports have said children who receive quality early education programs do better in school later.

Last year, the initiative awarded $4 billion in grants, according to an Associated Press report in the Washington Post. Steve Barnett, a researcher at Rutgers University said, “Roughly half of all 3-year-olds and about a quarter of 4-year-olds do not attend preschool.”

In August 2010, NJ.com reported that an error concerning yearly comparisons of budget information in the state’s application caused New Jersey to lose the Race to the Top money last year, and the ordeal cost Education Commissioner Bret Schundler his job.

A Department of Education spokesman said New Jersey will still try to create the early-learning plan without the federal money.