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CHARLOTTE – The state of North Carolina will be receiving roughly $70 million in federal funding for early childhood education. It comes from a Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant. The news was announced Friday morning at a White House press conference, listing North Carolina among eight other states of 37 applicants, receiving grants.

From learning the alphabet to working on social skills, it all starts in the pre-K classroom for a group of 4-year-olds at Reid Park Academy in Charlotte.

"This is their first time stepping into a classroom and kind of learning what school will be like, and these are the foundations. This is where they learn to learn,” said teacher Lisa Schreibeis.

But state budget cuts have made it more difficult for these teachers.

"We have been trying to do more with less, but there's just never enough, no matter what. But anything that we get, we will make the best of it,” said Schreibeis.

But the announcement of North Carolina receiving $70 million in federal funding is some welcome news.

"So hopefully this additional funding will be able to back fill those hard decisions that were made during some difficult times, and we still have some difficult times ahead,” said Dr. Hugh Hattabaugh, interim superintendent for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Of the 37 applicants, nine states were chosen to receive a total of $500 million. The money received can't simply be used to increase the number of students in current programs, but it'll be used to strengthen current programs and make them more effective.

"This is a phenomenal moment for early childhood education in this country. It has taken us literally years to get to this point, to not only recognize that early childhood matters, but we're putting our federal money where our mouth is finally,” said Linda Smith, with the Administration for Children and Families.

Teachers on the local level say they're excited to see how this will impact all early learning programs in the state.

"With this funding, there's so many programs that we could provide for the programs to see and just different opportunities that we didn't have before,” said Schreibeis.

All early learning programs, including public pre-K, Head Start, childcare and private preschools will benefit from this funding. There are stipulations in receiving the money, so there will be certain requirements that each of the states receiving the funding will be expected to fulfill.