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Nine months after he announced a $500 million mini-Race to the Top program, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has released details on how cash-strapped school districts can compete for the funds.

Districts will have to show improved test scores and promise to implement new teacher evaluations to have a shot at the first $75 million being doled out through a grant about student performance.

Cuomo outlined the competitive grant programs on his first official day in office on Jan. 5 in his State of the State speech, in which he said he planned to create two $250 million funds. One would be doled out to districts that boosted test scores and graduation over the last two years; the other would be for districts that cut costs.

Cuomo cut more than $1.2 billion in funding from local districts this year, saying that the state had spent too much on schools without getting adequate performance results. Distributing funds competitively, he said, would spark faster improvement in education.

“This competitive award program will incentivize innovative reforms in school districts across the state that will benefit students and help educate the workforce of tomorrow,” Cuomo said in a press release about the program today.

Details about the first grant, three years of funding rewarding student performance, were quietly posted on the State Education Department’s website Oct. 20. State officials say more grants are expected in future years until $250 million has been distributed. (more…)