"U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has more power than any other education secretary in the nation’s history. Duncan possesses $4.35 billion dollars in discretionary funds to push the reforms his administration believes will turn around the country’s failing schools, such as more charters and higher standards. What’s more, to get a piece of the money states must compete for it.
The competition is called the “Race to the Top,” and it is unlike any education reform efforts of the past. This program starts at the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and traces the growing involvement of the federal government in public education."