Department of Education gives money to eight states to improve schools
The U.S. Department of Education has announced plans to give funding to eight states to help them improve their chronically under performing schools. Alaska, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Washington and West Virginia will receive the funds as part of the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program. The U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, says a program like SIG is a necessary element in improving education in the nation overall.
"When a school continues to perform in the bottom five percent of the state and isn't showing signs of progress or has graduation rates below 60 percent over a number of years, something dramatic needs to be done," said Duncan. "Turning around our worst performing schools is difficult for everyone but it is critical that we show the courage to do the right thing by kids."
Alaska is set to receive $1.64 million, Delaware will get $1.54 million, $6.76 million will go to Maryland, Minnesota gets $4.79 million, Nevada will see $3.39 million, and North Carolina is planning on working with $14.24 million to improve the performance of its schools. West Virginia and Washington will receive $3.32 million and $7.59 million, respectively.
The grants will come from $546 million made available to states through the SIG program in fiscal 2010. In fiscal year 2009, states received a combined total of $3.5 billion from the SIG program.
