Hopkins Schools Superintendent Applauds Race to the Top Award

Exact details about how the state will divvy up Race to the Top money remain sparse, but Superintendent John Schultz is pleased the state won a share of money targeting early childhood education—a high priority in Hopkins.

“It aligns well with that early childhood vision—of kids coming in with what we think of as gaps and (then) getting them ready for kindergarten,” Schultz said.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday that Minnesota had won $45 million to “develop a better aligned system of accountable and effective early childhood education,” according to the Minnesota Department of Education.

The money is part of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, a federal competition that aims to spur innovation and reform in education. Minnesota was rebuffed in its first application for the program in 2010 and didn’t apply for a second round of funding.

But it is one of just nine states to share $500 million aimed at early childhood education. The other winners are:

• California,
• Delaware,
• Maryland,
• Massachusetts,
• North Carolina,
• Ohio,
• Rhode Island and
• Washington.

The money will first go to four communities—White Earth, Itasca County, Saint Paul’s Promise Neighborhood and Minneapolis’ Northside Achievement Zone, according to the Minnesota Department of Education. Those communities will provide best practices that can then be implemented in communities throughout the state.

The Education Department will leverage an additional $60 million in state money “to maximize current investments in early learning and engage public and private partners,” according to the department.

It’s not known what money, if any, will go to Hopkins—which just this year added a “Ready 4 K Preschool” program to Eisenhower Elementary in addition to the one started at Alice Smith earlier. Schultz said the district hasn’t heard anything from the state Department of Education other than the announcement he saw on its website.

But he said he’s hopeful the grant will build awareness about early childhood education—a key part of the Hopkins Public Schools legislative platform approved Thursday. That platform explicitly places a higher priority on funding early childhood education than all-day kindergarten.

Studies show that putting money into early childhood education is a good investment because children then enter kindergarten ready to learn, Schultz said.