By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network
LANSING, MI –
State officials will find out this month if Michigan is a finalist in the next round of "Race To The Top" federal education-reform funds. Michigan was not a finalist for the first round of grants.
Marty Ackley is with the Department of Education.
"The first round application was sent in just a few weeks after our new school-reform legislation was passed and signed into law by Governor Granholm. So we really had to rush that application through and we don't think we did as good of a story integrating that new legislation and our new laws into our application."
Ackley says Michigan's round-two application is much stronger because officials had more time to write it and work with local school districts and teachers unions. He says Michigan now has more local union support than the other states that applied.