Race to the top was a way for the federal government to incentivize state level education policy to make changes to try and improve the education experience of students in those states.  Instead of trying to force changes they're using a carrot to prod these states forwards.  Even if you don't agree it's prodding them forward it's at least trying to get them to change.  If my state didn't get considered for race to the top I'd be interested to see if they just didn't agree with the reforms because they had better ideas or if they were just entrenched in the same old way of doing things that's leading to American students falling way behind the rest of the world.  If it's the latter, I'd be worried.

we do get fundings just not extra fundings.   We as parents  must unite and go to washington and make them see our point or create a comittee to see the senator of your state, let him know your points of view on education. if we do not stand up we are going to end up with only rich kids in education and minority kids left out. this race to the top will not only break the Brown vs. Board of education but also plessy vs. fergesson outcomes. every child deserves the chance to be educated. visit democracy now in youtube, and hear some of their programs, they are not being monitor by the republican party and because of that theyprovide you with real facts of what is going on with race to the top. If you really knew what these charter schools and race to the top program are going to do these children, you would want your state to take the fundings. these new charter schools are owned by rich people who have no idea of education, and are going to run the school like private school. they will be asking for students test score to see if they test high in the state test and if so they will be admitted if not you are out of luck. these schools are desing to keep minority children out of education and the only one who are going to benefit from race to the top are these businessmen and rich kids. the owners will be getting tax payers money in return. they will make parents sing a contract stating that thier children will not miss more than some much days, misbehave, do his work, and pass the standar test, and if any of these laws are broken the child will not come back to the school. they are selling seats for education. What has our nation scooped down to?