By Angela Hatton
Nashville, TN – Tennessee and Delaware beat out fourteen other finalists for the first round of Race to the Top education funds. Tennessee received five hundred million dollars to implement a four year comprehensive education reform plan. Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen credits the application's success to the plan's focus on teachers, and its wide-spread support across the state.
"That's, it turns out, one of the things they were looking for, was just the sense that this thing had some continuity. It would stay going even when you change governor or control of the house or senate or something, y'know, switch parties, and those things. And I think was a great strength of our, of our application."
Bredesen says the state's willingness to embrace charter schools was another deciding factor. Tennessee receives its first part of the allocation in September, and Bredesen says he and state officials will be meeting with the U.S. Department of Education on April 14 to finalize the agreement. States that missed out this round can reapply in June for the remaining $3.4 billion in funds.