On Tuesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the second-round results of the Race to the Top competition.
The 10 finalists who will share in the $3.4 billion winnings are: Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia.
Delaware and Tennessee won the competition’s first round in March.
“The creativity and innovation in each of these winning applications is breathtaking,” Duncan said.
As in any competition, whenever there are winners there are losers. In this contest, the vast majority of states fell into the also-ran category, and won’t be spending any of the coveted RttT monies.
Experts wasted no time speculating as to why.