Huffman: Clock Ticking on Race to the Top

Tennessee’s education commissioner says schools need to decide soon how to spend their Race to the Top money. The state won half a billion dollars from the federal government two years ago and all of it has to be spent by 2014.

Tennessee was one of the first states awarded Race to the Top money. Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman told Governor Bill Haslam that some school systems haven’t spent their share of the money, and the clock is ticking.

“At this point, 18 months out, we’ve heard from districts ‘well, we’re not there yet, but we’re going to spend the money.’ That’s fine now, but it becomes less fine with each succeeding quarter.”

Overall, Huffman has proposed a $5.3 billion education budget for the next fiscal year. That’s $170 million less than last year’s. Most of the reductions come from the end of Race to the Top, in addition to 48 million in other cuts.