With the Race to the Top deadline just around the corner, education policy wonks are already sizing up the competition to figure out who's already in the lead, and who isn't.
Vegas odds probably aren't favoring these 14 states, which didn't meet the Gates Foundation's litmus test for qualifying for RttT technical assistance: Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Vermont.
After hearing grumbles from state officials, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundationopened up its technical assistance planning grants to all states. Twenty-four applied, and 10 won these Gates-funded grants of up to $250,000 each, which were technically awarded by the New Venture Fund, a grant-making middleman of sorts.
We'll get to the winning states in a minute.