State school superintendents in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., are setting aside traditional differences to cooperate in an effort to grab a slice of the available $5 billion in stimulus fund grants.
The jurisdictions have in the past collaborated irrespective of borders on issues such as crime and highways.
During January’s presidential inauguration, for example, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty issued a joint letter to congressional representatives requesting funds to help cover nearly $20 million in additional transportation costs.
But submitting a joint application for education funding would be a first for the jurisdictions, underscoring the lengths to which departments are going in order to eke out more federal dollars.
The widened discussions are coming at the same time as there is a focus at the federal level to create national standards for learning.
The available money is from a $5 billion pool of “Race to the Top” stimulus funds. Applicants would win the funds by proving they have made “dramatic progress” on four goals stated by the Department of Education, including improvements to teacher effectiveness and establishing “rigorous” learning standards.
Total stimulus funds for education, billions of which have already been distributed to states and districts, are about $250 billion.
“This would be an opportunity to share with and benefit from other states, and to improve children’s education,” said Charles Pyle, spokesman for Virginia’s department of education.
The commonwealth has recently implemented a data-keeping system that tracks students throughout their entire education within Virginia. Federal money could help to expand that system to eventually include Maryland and D.C., Pyle said.
“Right now we’re able to share school to school and division to division, but there’s an issue with the transmission of data from state to state,” he said.
Virginia has been asked by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to help craft some of the guidelines for winning the money, according to comments by Kaine this week before the state’s board of education.
Though official instructions haven’t been issued, Kaine said, Duncan has suggested that regional proposals would be well regarded.
Spokesmen for the superintendents in Maryland and D.C. said the discussions are ongoing, but it’s too early to reveal details.
