Thanks to Andy for the introduction and opportunity to blog on Eduwonk this week. As Andy mentioned, a lot of my work focuses on early childhood education, and I’m going to spend some time the next few days talking about the Early Learning Challege Race to the Top competition. RTT ELC is a $500 million state competition, created with FY2011 RTT funds, that will make competitive grants to states based on their plans to build comprehensive and integrated statewide early childhood care and education systems for children 0-5, and to expand the number of high-need children served in high-quality early childhood programs. What the heck does that mean? I’ll explain more later this week.
For starters, though, check out the administration’s announcement of the new Early Learning Challenge program, the draft competition criteria released June 31, and the blog on which the administration in taking comments from the public. My former colleagues at the New America Foundation have also been providing some great, must-read analysis and commentary on the ELC program.
–Sara Mead
Nice to hear, 500 mln is a large sum, enough to grow up a new generation of talanted people…
Thanks!