A federal innovation push

Federal efforts to force major education reform got their latest boost today as President Barack Obama and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the launch of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund that has become a major topic of conversation in education circles. The money is part of the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package that passed Congress back in February.

Today marked the beginning of a 30-day period during which the U.S. Department of Education will collect public comment on the criteria for the competitive grant process.

The Washington Post described the launch announcement as the start of a competition for the education innovation funds.

How will Maine stack up?

In one major part of the competition, not very well.

While the prospect of these innovation funds colored the Maine Legislature's conversation about charter schools, ultimately, the potential funds didn't persuade Maine legislators to support allowing the independently run schools in the state. It's been known all along that Maine and the nine other states that don't allow charter schools put themselves at risk of missing out on the $4.35 billion pot.

Maine might be in a better position, however, to capture funds from two other programs announced along with the Race to the Top fund.

The Teacher Incentive Fund will dispense $200 million to states and school districts that propose experimenting with teacher pay systems that base teacher compensation at least in part on job performance -- as opposed to union scales -- and student achievement. The Maine Legislature this spring passed a bill that encourages the alternative pay systems.

And the economic stimulus package also makes $250 million available to states working on "longitudinal data systems" that track student progress throughout their education and beyond. The Maine Legislature this spring approved legislation allowing the state to track student progress by Social Security Number, a move that simplifies the development of the state's tracking apparatus.

Click here to see more information about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act programs aimed at education reform.