MARIETTA - Gov. Sonny Perdue announced Wednesday that Georgia has submitted an application to the U.S. Department of Education for the first round of federal Race to the Top grants, although neither the Cobb nor Marietta City school districts are part of that application.

Perdue said Georgia stands to receive up to $462 million over four years to implement its plan if selected.

The Race to the Top fund is a $4 billion grant opportunity provided in President Barack Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to support new approaches to improve schools. The fund is available in the form of competitive grants to encourage and reward states that are creating conditions for education innovation and reform.

The application also calls for Georgia to adopt and implement common curricular standards and internationally-benchmarked assessments that indicate Georgia's ability to compete within a globally-connected economy, Perdue said in a press release.

Twenty-three local school districts have signed on to partner with the state in implementing Georgia's Race to the Top plan. These districts, which make up 41 percent of public school students in Georgia, include Atlanta, Ben Hill, Bibb, Burke, Carrolton, Chatham, Cherokee, Clayton, DeKalb, Dougherty, Gainesville, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Jones, Meriwether, Muscogee, Rabun, Richmond, Rockdale, Spalding, Valdosta and White.

Perdue said the state will work closely with these systems to implement the ideas contained in the application. Fifty percent of the funds awarded to Georgia will be distributed to the local partners to enact the Race to the Top reforms. The state will study the effectiveness of these practices to identify and scale up those that prove to be effective.

In a Jan. 4 memo to the Cobb school board, Superintendent Fred Sanderson recommended the district wait to find out more before seeking any of the money. Marietta City Schools Superintendent Dr. Emily Lembeck said her system didn't apply for the grant because it's not eligible. After the state submits its application this month and finds out if it is awarded the grant or not, local school systems that qualify as "low performing" will be contacted to participate. While Marietta has its share of economically disadvantaged students, the system is not considered a low performing district and therefore, "We do not qualify," Lembeck said.

U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) ripped the federal program.

"While the lure of federal money is always tempting, the cost of this slush fund will be felt through the further erosion in local control of education and more power to the federal government. Like the rest of the stimulus, this program relies on the false premise that all our solutions reside in Washington," Price said.

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta) was equally critical.

"While I applaud the president for his commitment to improving our country's educational system, I believe that this is, once again, an attempt to give the federal government more control over our schools. In the over 40 years since the creation of the Department of Education, Washington's involvement in local education has not narrowed the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their peers," Gingrey said.

State and local educators are in the best position to measure individual student progress, provide resources to those students in the most need, and know how to best use technology in the classroom, and they should have the maximum flexibility to make these important decisions, Gingrey said.

"Yet, the Race to the Top Fund only will create more bureaucracy diverting the attention of educators from their real duty - improving educational opportunities for their students," Gingrey said. "Furthermore, Race to the Top will pick winners and losers among applicants, leaving the distinct possibility that the achievement gap we are trying to close will only widen. Additionally, as I understand it, a school district like Marietta would not even be eligible to apply for these grants, even though the program is being funded with taxpayer money."

State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox is a supporter of the grant, but the two Cobb candidates running against her this year have concerns. Retired educator and former state Rep. Roger Hines of Acworth, a Republican vying for Cox's seat, called it the federalization of education. And retired Cobb educator Dr. Beth Farokhi, who is running on the Democrat ticket for the state school superintendent's seat, said it is unacceptable to require states to link student achievement data to individual teachers, which Race to the Top mandates.

"Our students need to be assessed on how they improve over a year in multiple ways, not just one test score. An evaluation of a teacher also cannot and should not be determined based on the test scores of their students," Farokhi said.

But U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Smyrna) is a supportive of the application.

"Georgia has an extraordinary opportunity in the Race to the Top Fund grants program," Scott said.

"Our state has had its share of challenges in education, and this grant program provides states with the potential to receive federal backing to support improvements to our schools. The Race to the Top program will encourage states to improve teachers who are not effective, and to identify advances in student achievement and successful instructional practices. I strongly support Georgia to meet the requirements of this grant, by means of an ambitious plan for education reform. This grant opportunity is too valuable not to pursue, and all Georgians will benefit from their support," Scott said.

The U.S. Department of Education estimates that round one winners will be announced in April 2010. Forty states and the District of Columbia submitted Race to the Top applications.