Recovery Act Funds Available

New Recovery Act Funds Available

Local school districts have an opportunity to promote pre-k as the federal government begins to award competitive grants authorized by last year’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the economic stimulus bill.
Pre-k is a competitive priority in the Investing in Innovation (i3) grant competition. The goal of i3 is to support and bring to scale innovative education practices that have demonstrated effectiveness in serving children. Those eligible for funds are local educational agencies as well as non-profit agencies working with public schools.

Grants are available in three categories: Scale-Up Grants for initiatives with strong evidence of effectiveness; Validation Grants for initiatives with moderate evidence of effectiveness; and Development Grants for those with a “reasonable” hypothesis that they will succeed. The Education Department has $650 million available for the competition. Deadline is May 11.

"Many of our generation's greatest breakthroughs occur when people are willing to invest in small scale projects with big scale potential," said Education Secretary Arne Duncan in announcing the competition in early March. "We need to identify these pockets of promise in the education community and give them the resources they need to grow."

The department also has identified pre-k as an invitational priority for the Race to the Top funds available to states to fund innovations. Also funded under the Recovery Act, Race to the Top has $4.35 billion available for distribution. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have been selected as finalists for these funds. (UPDATE from CT Early Childhood Alliance: Delaware and Tennessee have been awarded funds in the first-round of RTTT.)

In its 2011 budget request, the Obama administration also is proposing continued funding for both of these initiatives as part of an effort to spur additional innovation. The president’s budget plan for 2011 includes another $1.35 billion for Race to the Top and $500 million for the i3 fund.

For information on i3, visit the department’s site at www2.ed.gov/programs/innovation/index.html.
Information on Race to the Top is at www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html.