BATON ROUGE — Louisiana officials Wednesday made their pitch for a piece of a $4.35 billion federal grant called Race to the Top that seeks to reform public schools.
The state has applied for $314 million in the Race to the Top contest. But unless a five-member review team rates Louisiana among the top five or six of the 14 states and District of Columbia that made the first cut, it's possible Louisiana could come away empty-handed.
State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek has said "only a handful" of applicants would receive awards in April in this first round. Another competition is scheduled in July. Louisiana was among seven applicants interviewed in 90-minute segments Wednesday. The other eight qualifiers presented their cases Tuesday.
