The U.S. Department of Education today said that $133 million in early-childhood education grants would be split among Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin in its second round of the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge competition.
The announcement comes as no surprise, as these five states had pretty much sewn up their share of the money after they made a strong showing in the initial round of competition that split $500 million among nine winning states. For the most part, the states had to submit the same proposals as they did in the first phase, but had to make adjustments or scale back because only half as much money was available to them in this bridesmaid round.
Grants range from just under $35 million for Illinois to $20.5 million for Oregon.