California will not receive funding under phase two of the federal Race to the Top competition, according to an announcement made Aug. 24 by the U.S. Department of Education.

Nine states and the District of Columbia were selected to receive the funding. The states include Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island.

“ACSA is disappointed for the 302 local educational agencies that made the commitment to implement all of the reforms required under Race to the Top,” said ACSA Executive Director Bob Wells. “While this was unsuccessful, we urge state policymakers to continue to involve stakeholders in all competitive grant applications, not just Race to the Top. We are also pleased California adopted Common Core with California specific standards to improve upon our rigorous standards.”

Wells further stated that requiring states to apply for competitive federal grants simply to provide a quality education for all students just goes to show how much work the school finance system needs.

“This is just further evidence that our school finance system is dysfunctional and needs reform,” Wells said. “It strengthens our resolve to see a victory in our historic lawsuit, Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California.”

According to the DOE, very few points separated winning states from remaining applications. The deciding factor  hinged on both the quality of applications and funds available.

“We had many more competitive applications than money to fund them in this round,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “We’re very hopeful there will be a Phase 3 of Race to the Top and have requested $1.35 billion dollars in next year’s budget. In the meantime, we will partner with each and every state that applied to help them find ways to carry out the bold reforms they’ve proposed in their applications.”

For more information, visit the U.S. Department of Education online at www.ed.gov.