12 of the 16 (15 + DC) finalists to get Arne's money got Gates money to help them compete.

[madfloridian]

As this blog says, that is a very huge overlap which could mean a lot or mean nothing at all.

From the Fordham Flypaper:

The Gates Conspiracy

A perceptive reader pointed this out to me. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation originally provided 15 states with $250,000 planning grants to help them prepare their Race to the Top applications. After a firestorm of controversy, Gates made similar grants available to the other states. But note this:

Original Gates States:

Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas.

Round I finalists:

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

Overlap:

Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee

(12 out of 16)

Here is more about the 16 finalists, 15 + DC.

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia survived the first cut Thursday in the Obama administration's unprecedented $4 billion school reform contest.

The announcement of finalists in the Race to the Top competition at 11:30 a.m. carried some political risk because few governors or state education leaders want to be told they are not in the vanguard of reform. It's also seen as a test of President Obama's resolve to push for major changes in public education as he seeks to rewrite the 2002 No Child Left Behind law.

The finalists are: Colorado, Delaware, the District, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee.

..."These states are an example for the country of what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. "Everyone that applied for Race to the Top is charting a path for education reform in America."

Race to the top finalists

Last year the Associated Press pointed out that ethics rules had been bent to allow the Department of Education to work more easily with the Gates Foundation.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan welcomes the foundation's involvement.

"The more all of us are in the game of reform, the more all of us are pushing for dramatic improvement, the better," Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Duncan's inner circle includes two former Gates employees. His chief of staff is Margot Rogers, who was special assistant to Gates' education director. James Shelton, assistant deputy secretary, was a program director for Gates' education division. Rogers said she joined the administration because she was inspired by the its goals for helping kids graduate from high school and finish college.

The administration has waived ethics rules to allow Rogers and Shelton to deal more freely with the foundation, but Rogers said she talks infrequently with her former colleagues.