Del. to share in $500 million early childhoood program grant

According to the Associated Press, nine states, including Delaware, will share $500 million in grant money to improve their early childhood programs.

An administration official says the winners to be announced Friday at the White House are California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the winners had not been announced.

The competition is part of the Obama administration’s cornerstone “Race to the Top” education initiative. It has states competing for federal education dollars in exchange for changes it favors. Last year, it handed out $4 billion in such grants focused on K-12 education.

The goal of the early learning competition was to get more children from birth to age 5 ready for kindergarten.