Policy Pick: California Revs Up For Race To The TopOctober 31, 2011 |
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 After months of encouragement from parents, educators and advocates, Gov. Jerry Brown announced California will compete for a Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant. The state's application was submitted to the U.S. Department of Education on Oct. 19. Race to the Top was unveiled in May 2011 by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The $500 million fund is a competitive grant designed to increase access to quality early learning programs for low-income and disadvantaged children. California's application centers on the implementation of a Quality Rating and Improvement System by 16 regional consortia that consist of county offices of education and First 5 commissions in 15 counties. These consortia cover 1.8 million young children who represent more than 65 percent of the total number of children under age 5 in the state. The QRIS would provide a method of evaluating individual early learning programs, based on factors such as the physical environment, the quality of instruction, the child/teacher ratio and others. "The heart of our plan is local control, where the effort to improve the quality of early learning can best be accomplished," Brown explained in a cover letter that accompanied the 225-page application. The proposal calls for more than 85 percent of grant funds to go directly to the consortia for local programming. In Los Angeles County, both the Los Angeles County Office of Child Care and Los Angeles Universal Preschool submitted letters of intent to participate in the Early Learning Challenge Regional Leadership Consortia. Several First 5 county commissions, including Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Diego and San Francisco, have as well. If selected, California could be awarded up to $100 million over 4 years to support improvements in the quality of Early Care and Education programs for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Grant winners will be announced in December. Additional Reading: |
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