By IL Public Radio
Springfield, IL – Illinois Tuesday submitted its application for more than four billion dollars to spend on improving education. The state's vying with about 30 other states for its share of 400-500 million dollars.
State Board of Education Spokesman Matt Vanover says Illinois would use the grant to turn around low-achieving schools. The state will also track students progress from kindergarten through high school, and will connect teacher and principal salaries to student performance.
Vanover says there's already concern about if Illinois does win the cash ... what the state will do four years from now when the grant expires. But he says grant or no grant, Illinois still wants to require teacher evaluations be contingent on student performance. "You're still going to have to pay teachers, you're still going to have to pay principals...what you do is using that money to lay the infrastructure so that everybody's still doing their job, they're just working better because they have better tools in order to work with."
Vanover adds that should the state not get the cash this time around, Illinois still has another opportunity to apply for money in June.
President Barack Obama says he'll ask Congress to add more money to the education grant program so that more states can qualify.
