Poorer TN schools will get most Race to the Top aid, By Chas Sisk, April 14, 2010, The Tennessean: “Tennessee schools are set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid through the Race to the Top program, but districts can expect to get vastly different amounts from the effort to raise the state’s education standards. School districts will get half of Tennessee’s $500 million award from the federal government, with the other half remaining under the control of the state government. How much each district gets will be tied to poverty measures, meaning that urban and poor rural districts will get many times more money per pupil from the program than their suburban counterparts. About 40 percent of the $250 million earmarked for school districts through the Race to the Top program is expected to go to two school districts – Metro Nashville and Memphis…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty