Race to Top Win Poses $100 Million Test for Delaware

Delaware won the race. A windfall of federal Race to the Top Fund money—some $100 million—will soon begin flowing to turn its detailed proposal into concrete actions meant to improve public schooling across the small mid-Atlantic state.

“What’s really important is where we go from here,” Gov. Jack Markell said in a conference call with reporters last week following the announcement that his state was one of just two winners in the first round of the grant competition, financed with economic-stimulus money. “We’ve got a lot of hard work and tough decisions ahead of us as we make these reforms a reality. It won’t be easy.”

Delaware, which has about 126,800 public school students, ranked No. 1 among 41 applicants on the competition’s 500-point grading scale, earning a score of 454.6 points. The application received unanimous approval from the state teachers’ union and...