The U.S. Department of Education has now laid out very specific deadlines for states vying for a piece of the Race to the Top fund, a pool of discretionary economic-stimulus money that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will get to dole out to the states. Billed as a “national competition,” the grants will be distributed in two rounds—to give states that miss out the first time around a crack at the second phase.

Applications will be due in December and June. So states that have charter school caps, for instance, have a year (as Duncan might say) to get their act together and lift those caps!

It looks like these deadlines will apply only to the $4 billion in state grants, not to the $350 million that’s been set aside for new assessments, nor for the $650 million in innovation grants available to school districts and nonprofit groups.

The deadlines are:

Late July: The Department will publish a notice of proposed rule making in the Federal Register, inviting public comment for 30 days on the proposed grant application and the criteria for evaluating the states’ applications.

October: Notice inviting applications will be published in the Federal Register.

December: Phase 1 applications will be due.

March 2010: Phase 1 grants awarded, winners announced.

June 2010: Phase 2 applications will be due.

September 2010: Phase 2 grants awarded, winners announced.