The Obama administration plans to spend $500-million to help states expand innovative early-learning and child-care programs, the bulk of which are operated by nonprofits.

The new fund, called the Early Learning Challenge, will consume most of the $700-million that was allocated by Congress in April for Race to the Top, the grants program to help states improve the quality of their schools.

Like previous Race to the Top competitions, the Early Learning Challenge will award grants directly to states. The program will be administered jointly by the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services.

Many of the details about how the program will work will not be revealed until late summer. However, the administration said in a statement that states will be encouraged to make it easier for kids from needy families to get access to programs, to align their child-care and …

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More than two years after President Obama took office with a pledge to expand the Harlem Children’s Zone idea to 20 communities across the nation, the Senate has introduced legislation that would make the program permanent.

Up until now, the Promise Neighborhoods program—the centerpiece of the President’s pledge—has received only temporary authority by Congress through annual spending bills.

Promise Neighborhoods is an important element of the Obama administration’s effort to promote innovative thinking in solving social problems.

In this case, the goal is to break down barriers between existing educational and social-service programs by creating umbrella groups that serve a wide array of needs in a single neighborhood. Under the approach, parents get prenatal attention and learn how to nurture a child, and family members and youngsters all participate in efforts to help…

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Only 18 applications are competing for the second round of grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Social Innovation Fund, the new grant program to help nonprofits expand effective programs.  The total is a significant drop from the 69 applications submitted in 2010 (54 of which were deemed eligible). Half of the 18 new applicants are from United Ways.

What is behind the drop in applications? It is hard to know, but there are several possible explanations.

First, there is a finite pool of potential applicants and many of those that were interested likely applied last year. Those that did and fell short may have been hesitant to reapply for fear of failing again, with all the potential embarrassment that might cause with local supporters. Indeed, of the 69 applicants in the first round last year, only seven reapplied this year.

Second, the…

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