As a part of the final deal on FY2011 appropriations, Congress afforded Race to the Top an additional $700 million. While this is a steep drop from its initial $4 billion investment under the Recovery Act, it still represents a significant win for the Obama administration as it seeks to sustain one of its signature grant programs and education reform initiatives.

Regina Renaldi is the Executive Director of Priority Programs at St. Vrain Valley School District in Colorado. St. Vrain received the highest scoring application in the Investing in Innovation (i3) grant competition. Ms. Renaldi was generous enough to sit down and discuss with us the i3 grant and St. Vrain's grantseeking in general. This is our conversation.

While Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 and FY2012 budget talks will likely continue to dominate the political psyche for the foreseeable future, other important legislative endeavors remain alive - albeit in a much more latent way. Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) has been a standing priority for the Obama administration, as it remains an area of possible bipartisan achievement.

The USDA's Distance Learning and Telemedicine (or DLT) program is one of the most popular annual federal grant programs. Highly competitive, the DLT program makes awards ranging from $50,000 to $500,000 for organizations that provide education or healthcare telecommunications services to rural populations. DLT also has one of the more complex application packages, and requires applicants to provide population tables, maps, and poverty rates for each proposed service area (end-users), as well as hub sites from which services will be delivered.

President Obama's second State of the Union speech may have easily been titled "Investing in Innovation," borrowing from one of his signature education reform grant programs funded under the Recovery Act. Throughout this speech to the U.S. Congress and nation, Obama emphasized the imperative to support innovation for the health of the U.S. economy and future welfare of the country. While the speech was short on specific policy items or legislative goals, Obama made clear broad priorities going forward, including energy, education, and infrastructure.

Of the two bills signed into law that enacted the historic health care reform effort under President Obama, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 features one of the least cited yet critically important grant opportunities since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

A crucial factor in providing a first-rate 21st century education for our students is to ensure they have access to 21st century technologies. While technology is certainly no panacea to the education conundrums confronting the United States, it is becoming ever more important that students today know how to use technology effectively as they progress through higher levels of academia and into the workforce.

Despite growing up in a truly Digital Generation fed by Wi-fi access, smart phones, and iPods, U.S. students are falling alarmingly behind in the same academic and professional fields that created such ubiquitous modern-day necessities. In mid-September, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the National Science Board (NSB) released reports calling for renewed attention to how the United States attracts and educates students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or more popularly referred to as STEM.

Like most components of the $787 billion Recovery Act passed into law in 2009, the $4.35 billion Race to the Top grant program often receives notice as "unprecedented" for its sheer size. With nearly every state in the U.S. facing a budget deficit or outright fiscal crisis, the billions for education funding represent a critically important source to keep local school districts afloat.

With most schools officially on summer vacation, now is the perfect time for developing projects and mapping out a grant strategy for the coming months. As many grant programs for educational institutions involve significant collaboration, the summer months can provide time for creating relationships and beginning dialogue with potential grant partners.