Regional approach taken to Early Learning Challenge
California hopes 3rd try is a charm in U.S. Race to the Top competition
Published: October 25, 2011
Hoping for up to $100 million to help make early learning and wellness programs available to more children from low-income families, California officials submitted an application on the Oct. 19 deadline for the new federal Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge competitive grants.
A total of $500 million is available nationwide for this third round of economic stimulus funding under RTTT. California was unsuccessful in the first two rounds, which allocated $4 billion to a dozen other states for K-12 programs.
Determined to avoid any new obligations for scarce state education funds, Gov. Jerry Brown tailored California’s 225-page application to capitalize on the existing work of the state’s 58 county-based First 5 commissions, which use cigarette tax revenues to support the needs of preschool children. Sixteen regional consortia signed on to the state’s Early Learning Challenge application, proposing to serve an estimated 76,000 children over four years.
Local control
The U.S. Department of Education’s criteria call for states to devise a statewide Quality Rating and Improvement System index that parents could use to evaluate program quality. California, however, has begged off creating a uniform evaluation system in favor of local control and innovation.
“This kind of centralization would not work across diverse U.S. states, nor will it work across California’s diverse regions,” the state’s application argues. Its approach would empower local partners to develop strategies to improve early learning that, while based on shared standards, would be most effective in their respective communities.
“Each of the sixteen consortia will decide how to distinguish levels of quality, will identify its priorities for improvement, and will determine what specific ways it will improve program quality. I believe that this approach will be much more successful than any one-size fits all mandate from the state capitol,” Brown wrote in a letter accompanying the state’s application.
California has 1,729 local educational agencies and over 50,000 early learning providers that “span a far wider spectrum of size, infrastructure, and readiness for change than exists in any other state,” the application points out.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson also spoke out in support of local control in his endorsement of the state’s approach.
“I’m hopeful that federal authorities will see that this application represents an opportunity to build on state and local efforts to help close the achievement gap by improving the quality of California’s early learning and care programs,” Torlakson said in a statement.