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Ohio State is one of the final 16 contenders for the Federal education stimulus money. As a part of its efforts in winning a part of the Race to the Top $4.3 billion funds, Ohio will shortly be making a presentation to the Obama administration.

A total of 25 states competed for the funds and Ohio is among the top 16 states that made it to the final list.

Arne Duncan, the education secretary however cautioned the finalists that not all of them will be offered the stimulus funds. Only a small number of finalists will be selected, he said in a conference with reporters.

Applications were reviewed based on a maximum score of 500 points and 19 criteria. Teams from all states will proceed to Washington DC this month to pitch their cases to the reviewers. All the 16 finalists scored above 400 points.

The Governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland is very optimistic that Ohio will be one of the states receiving sufficient funds to improve its education standard. According to him, team Ohio will be led by Eric D. Fingerhut, the chancellor of higher education and Deborah S. Delisle, the school superintendent.

Ohio’s application spanning 263 pages requested for $409 million funds to be spent over the next four years split between the participating school districts and the state. Some of the goals of the state include reducing the gap on national math and reading tests between best performing states and Ohio, at least by half, reduce gap between national and state assessments by half, reducing gap in graduation rates between the majority and minority students and enhancing the rate of graduation in high school to 88 percent.

Some of the funds are proposed to be utilized towards public relations. Race to the Top stories will be developed by two “cultural anthropologists” for which the state will be spending an amount of $600,000. “Race to the top communications plan” is another program for which an amount of $320,000 will be allocated.

According to Genoa Township’s GOP Rep. Pat Tiberi, proposal of Ohio is an effort to add in more innovation towards helping schools that are under performing to cope with issues related to minority achievement and low graduation.

Tiberi said this is an opportunity for states to do something regarding large schools, public education and charter schools in order to make a significant difference. Mary Jo Kilroy, the Democratic Rep of Columbus said that Ohio definitely deserves the funds that will help the state motivate its underperforming schools to achieve and hire quality teachers.

The other fifteen finalists include Florida, District of Columbia, Delaware, Colorado, Kentucky, Illinois, Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina.

States that miss out on funding eligibility this round can apply for the next round of Federal Race to the Top funding this year. The administration will also pitch in for additional $1.85 billion funds for a third round of aid.