CINCINNATI —
Ohio is one of 19 states whose proposals made the final round for consideration in the competition for Race to the Top stimulus funds.

Arne Duncan, U.S. Department of Education Secretary, announced the finalists during an education policy speech Tuesday. 

Ohio Education Matters, a subsidiary of Cincinnati-based KnowledgeWorks, praised the state for being named a finalist for the education reform competition that began last year with $4.35 billion. USDOE awarded $600 million to Delaware and Tennessee during the first round of the competition.

“The effort of the past year to coalesce the best thinking around Ohio’s educational future in pursuit of RTTT dollars has already paid dividends for Ohio,” said Andrew Benson, executive director of Ohio Education Matters.  “The Ohio proposal represents an education strategic plan for the future — a plan that has now received tremendous validation at the national level.” 

Other finalists, which beat out 17 other states that applied in the second round, are: Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Carolina.

Ohio’s success at making the final round comes as no surprise to Ohio Education Matters.  Its May 2010 policy report, “Moving from Vision to Reality: Ohio’s Second Round of the Race to the Top,” predicted that Ohio would prevail in the federal competition.  The full policy report is available at www.ohioeducationmatters.org.

KnowledgeWorks, at the request of Governor Ted Strickland, is currently embarking on an initiative to help identify efficiencies while improving quality in the state’s education system. The state faces sizeable projected budget deficit.

KnowledgeWorks CEO Chad Wick believes the vision laid out in Ohio’s RTTT proposal is helping to guide the priorities of the project:  “We cannot rise to the challenge of our time by propping up the education status quo.  We must identify significant efficiencies within the education system while becoming expert at directing limited resources toward creating new learning environments that will give students every opportunity for success in the 21st century.  Ohio’s RTTT proposal has helped to create the road map.”

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Ohio Education Matters, a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks Foundation, is a statewide, public policy research organization that focuses on connecting the dots between great innovations and those in the community who can make change. As a non-partisan entity, Ohio Education Matters acts as a catalyst of an education transformation in the state by conducting research, advocacy, engagement and policy development that inspires others to make the system changes needed today to prepare Ohio’s children for the future.