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After losing in the first round of the Race to the Top Competition, Florida was named one of the second round winners today. The state could receive as much as 700 million dollars, but the actual dollar amount won’t be known for at least another day. The money will then be divided among Florida’s school districts, with the districts presenting the best education reform plans receiving the most money. Department of Education Spokesman Tom Butler says the changes will be monumental.

“Probably over the next four years is really where we are going to see this thing play out. For students it’s going to be drastic increases in their academic performance. We have some bold innovated strategies that we are going to be employing here, and districts are going to be employing locally to really speed up our students’ progress,” said Butler.

The Florida Education Association helped shape the state’s Race to the Top Application. Spokesman Mark Pudlow says without bringing the teachers union, parents, and administrators to the table, Florida might have lost again.

“It is something that will allow us to look at what works and what doesn’t work, and what works we’ll be able to expand on and what doesn’t work we’ll be able to try something else,” said Pudlow.

Details of how Race to the Top money will be spent and what changes they will usher in are still vague, but we do know that some of the money will be used to award teachers based on their students’ performance in the classroom.