South Carolina a finalist in new round of education grants

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina education officials said Tuesday they believe they have a good shot at $175 million in federal education money after surpassing 17 other states and making the finals of a school reform grant program.

"I think the competition is going to be pretty fierce," state education chief Jim Rex said. "We're very optimistic."

In all, 18 states and the District of Columbia were chosen as finalists in a second round of competition for $3 billion in "Race to the Top" grants. South Carolina missed out on the first round in the competition when Tennessee and Delaware were awarded $600 million earlier this year, finishing sixth.

South Carolina's grant application details a program that aims to graduate all students from high school by 2020 either ready for college or work. To get there, it proposes more personalized instruction, better career and college planning and improving educators. The program aims to improve teacher recruitment and retention, increase the ways educators are certified and ties their evaluations to student achievement.

Rex said South Carolina's "ace in the hole" is the fact that the state's reforms have been in the works for some years and that it has the data to back up its performance. He said a strong program is in the works to show off to judges during presentations Aug. 10 in Washington, D.C.

However, Rex did stress that the four-year grant money will not make up for the more than $800 million cut from state education budgets because of the recession.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the finalists earlier in the day, saying in a speech that judges selected those that had "the boldest plans" for reform.

Besides South Carolina and the District of Columbia, the finalists were Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Thirty-five states and the District had submitted applications.

The finalists will send teams to Washington to make presentations to the judges, who will then adjust the states' final grades based on how they answer detailed questions about their proposals. The winners will be announced around Sept. 1, officials said.

The program is part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus and is designed to reward states for innovative reforms to improve student achievement.