Did the teachers union hold back California from Race to the Top funds? Very likely, since they clearly opposed legislature's efforts to qualify

15 States Plus D.C. Are Named Race to the Top Finalists
By Michele McNeil
March 4, 2010

And the highly anticipated Round One finalists are...

Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

The Final 16 beat out 25 other states and earned the highest scores from the peer reviewers, who awarded points based on a 500-point grading scale that judged states' commitments to improve teacher effectiveness, data systems, academic standards, and low-performing schools.

The list of finalists is supposed to reflect U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's promise that he would set a very high bar for this education-reform competition, which has become one of the Obama administration's most high-profile policy levers. At stake is $4 billion from the economic-stimulus package approved by Congress last year, not to mention bragging rights.;;