Tennessee and Delaware have been named the winners of the first race to the top federal grant program.  Tennessee was chosen for several reasons, but chief among them was the statewide buy-in for comprehensive school reform.

The state politicians have written new laws and shown courage and commitment in implementing the policies. The teachers unions also backed the aggressive reforms for improving instruction and accountability.

Tennessee will be receiving $500 million distributed over a period of time as long as the state continues to meet the benchmarks established by the program. This is just the first phase of the program, and there is still plenty of time for other states to raise the bar on their own education systems.  $3.4 billion is still available for the second phase. 

The federal government has never in history made this kind of money available for education reform, and maybe it’s about time. Maybe someone in the government saw the same bumper sticker I did the other day: “It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.”  At least it’s a step in the right direction.