Funds

According to, Katherine Long who is a Seattle Times staff reporter,
Washington has won a major federal education competition and will receive up to $60 million during the next four years to improve private preschool programs across the state.
The money is part of the Obama administration's education initiative, Race to the Top.
The goal of the competition was to get more children from birth to age 5 ready for kindergarten. Thirty-five states, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, applied for the chance to win between about $50 million to $100 million each — $500 million in all. Only nine states received the award.
In Washington, the money will go to support two initiatives: free training for preschool providers, and a standardized assessment that kindergarten teachers will use at the beginning of the school year to determine the skill level of the incoming class.
Private child-care providers and day-care centers provide most of the early childhood education in Washington, although the state also gets federal money for Head Start and funds a state Head Start-like program for low-income children called ECEAP, for Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program. To read more of this visit #http://bit.ly/vVdZFa