Race to the Top Competition Uses Federal Funds to Incentivize Charter Expansion and Teacher Evaluation Reforms

On July 24, 2009, the Obama administration announced Race to the Top (RttT), a $4.35 billion competitive grant program that would profoundly reshape American education policy by requiring states to adopt charter school expansion, test-based teacher evaluations, and Common Core standards as conditions for receiving federal funds. The program represented the culmination of a bipartisan neoliberal consensus on education reform that prioritized market mechanisms and accountability metrics over investment and equity.

Race to the Top emerged from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus), with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan—former CEO of Chicago Public Schools and a charter school proponent—wielding unprecedented discretionary authority over education policy. The program’s competitive structure forced cash-strapped states during the Great Recession to compete for limited funds by adopting Duncan’s preferred policies, including lifting caps on charter schools, implementing teacher evaluations tied to student test scores, and adopting “college and career ready standards” (the Common Core).

The program’s design reflected the priorities of the Gates Foundation, Eli Broad, and other philanthropies that had spent the previous decade promoting charter schools and “data-driven” education reform. Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), a Wall Street-funded organization that challenged teachers’ unions from within the Democratic Party, had cultivated relationships with Obama’s education team. The convergence of Democratic policy and billionaire-funded reform agendas created what critics called “venture philanthropy” capture of education policy.

Forty-six states applied for Race to the Top funds; only 19 won grants. But the program’s influence extended far beyond winning states, as the competitive pressure drove policy changes nationwide. States rushed to pass legislation lifting charter caps, implementing untested teacher evaluation systems, and adopting Common Core—often over the objections of teachers and parents. Colorado, Louisiana, Indiana, and other states passed “reform” legislation explicitly to improve their RttT applications.

Research consistently found that Race to the Top’s signature reforms failed to improve student outcomes. Studies of teacher evaluation systems tied to test scores showed they did not improve teaching quality, created perverse incentives to avoid difficult-to-teach students, and demoralized educators. Charter school expansion continued to show mixed results at best. The Common Core sparked a backlash that united progressive teachers’ advocates with conservative opponents of federal overreach. Yet the damage was done: Race to the Top had institutionalized a reform agenda that treated public schools as problems to be disrupted rather than institutions to be strengthened, advancing privatization under Democratic auspices and making “education reform” synonymous with market-based solutions.