By Ashley Badgley

Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD —President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top competition is down to 15 states and the District of Columbia; finalists were announced Thursday by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Illinois is one of those finalists for federal funding to pay for education reform. However, winners will not be chosen until early April and Duncan said he is not yet sure how many winners there will be.

Duncan said that no more than $2 billion will be given to the winners of the Race to the Top competition during this first round.

“I cannot say how many winners there are going to be, but we are setting a high bar and we are anticipating very few winners in round one,” Duncan said. “It is a function of the strength of the application and I can assure everyone there will be plenty of money left over for the second round.”

The second round of finalists will be chosen in June, Duncan said. Forty states and the District of Columbia applied in the first round.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn released a statement in response to the announcement.

“A fulfilling and top-notch education for all Illinois students is our No. 1 priority, and we are in a great position to take full advantage of this federal funding,” Quinn said in a prepared statement.

According to the Race to the Top Website, several factors determine a finalist, and ultimately, a winner. Duncan said he could not discuss why certain states were chosen and others were not. But he did say when the first round is over, all the states’ applications and critiques will be presented online, along with the interviews of the final 16 competitors.

Any state that receives the funds must use the money for their education reform plan. If the funds are abused, the state will lose the money.

“Once [winners] are chosen, we’re going to have to work through with those states and we’re going to hold them accountable on an ongoing basis,” Duncan said. “We’re not going to give them all the money upfront. These are multi-year grants. As long as they continue to do good work, they’ll continue to receive funding and if we see them acting on bad faith and doing something, we’ll stop funding them and shift those scarce resources to other states that are doing it the right way.”

Advance Illinois is an advocacy organization that heavily supports Illinois’ Race to the Top application.

Executive Director Robin Steans said having Illinois named a finalist is a “huge vote of confidence” for educational reform work in the state, but she does not want to get her hopes up.

She said Thursday’s announcement will keep Illinois high on the list, and even if Illinois is not selected in the first round, being a finalist now will provide momentum for round two in June.

Illinois’ application asked for about $500 million from the program, but Steans said she would be surprised if the federal government handed out the entire $2 billion in the fund.

“I wouldn’t expect to see more that $2 billion handed out,” Steans said. “I’ll be a little surprised if they give out that much. I believe them when they say it’s going to depend on who some of the strongest [states] are and are those big or little states.”

State Sen. James Meeks, D-Chicago, who has worked on several proposals to improve public education, said Illinois’ status as a finalist is good news, but he has concerns that once the money is gone, it will be hard to continue programs.

“Illinois is becoming used to one-time revenue,” Meeks said. “Even when Race to the Top comes, we’ll still have to put some revenue in place to replace those programs.”