Gov. Sonny Perdue's failure to secure teacher support cost the state $462 million in Race to the Top funding, officials with two of Georgia's largest professional educators groups contend.
"Obviously the lack of buy-in from organizations and other school systems didn't help," Georgia Association of Educators President Jeff Hubbard said.
Taking the same approach in the competition's second round will spell another defeat, he said.
"I think he's blowing a huge opportunity," Mr. Hubbard said. "But that seems to be his legacy; blowing education to smithereens."
But Gov. Perdue's spokesman, Bert Brantley, said Georgia's "loss" is a matter of perspective and accusations of a "lack of buy-in" are just political rhetoric.
"It's interesting to us how often rhetoric doesn't match the facts and actual circumstances on the ground," Mr. Brantley said.
Georgia's third-place finish shows "clearly the goals in the Race to the Top were met," he said.
Had the U.S. Department of Education awarded funding to four or five states in the first round, as federal officials initially suggested they would, Georgia would have been a winner, Mr. Brantley said.
Only Tennessee and Delaware among 16 finalists received any of the Race to the Top jackpot. Georgia came in third, just 10.6 points behind Tennessee, which receives $500 million. Delaware gets $100 million.
Points deducted from Georgia's application categories for participation would not have made enough difference to overtake Tennessee's score, Mr. Brantley said.
"You can't point to anything in the application, anything in the reviewers' comments, that would have singularly put us over the top in terms of getting us into second place," he said. "Georgia is the only state that received at least 80 percent of the points in all of the major categories."
PARTICIPATION
Reviewers of Georgia's Race application pointed to the lack of stakeholder buy-in throughout the document, though the absence sometimes was not associated directly with point deductions, records show.
Reviewers specifically cited the fact that only 23 of Georgia's 180 school systems joined the effort.
"This number raises serious questions as to the state's capacity to successfully implement and achieve the goals in the plans statewide," one reviewer noted.
However, other reviewers said "fewer points were withheld" because the systems that did sign on represent 41 percent of Georgia's students and an even higher percentage of high-needs student subgroups.
Delaware, Tennessee and some other states in the Race garnered 100 percent participation from teacher groups.
Tim Callahan, spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, said stakeholder buy-in was a "top issue."
Walker County Schools Superintendent Melissa Mathis said she expects more pressure for "100 percent participation" in future federal grant programs.
Walker was the only nearby system that state officials invited to join the effort. Ms. Mathis said administrators declined the invitation because there were few details and plenty of concern about how the program would roll out statewide.
Susan Walker, policy and research director for the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, was more tempered. The partnership, which did not participate in the Race process, is a nonprofit, independent organization of business, education, community and government leaders.
"There was a concerted effort to get a range of stakeholder input through a variety of means," Ms. Walker said. "In retrospect, maybe more could have been done in this area, but we feel the application was a strong one across the board."
SECOND-ROUND CHANCES
Georgia will be one in a crowd of contenders vying for a chunk of $3.4 billion available in the Race's second round. Applications are due by June 1.
Mr. Callahan said his organization worries about criticisms of the state's student information system, the data-gathering mechanism for measuring student growth that is at the heart of most Race efforts.
Reviewers can see "we're still undercounting, miscounting or losing students," he said. "I wouldn't want to bet on our chances even in the second round."
Reviewers also expressed concern about the lack of information on programs to help principals be more effective.
Mr. Brantley said Georgia's second application will be based on the first, but it will include more explanation about those programs. The budget for Race funding also will reflect the lesser amount of available money, he said.
Georgia's second-round chances are good because "what they're saying is that 15 or 16 states get it in the second round. We feel very, very comfortable that we would be in that," he said.
RACE RESULTS
Below are the 16 finalist states in the federal Race to the Top competition. Scores show total points awarded out of 500. The two first-round winners were Delaware, with $100 million, Tennessee, with about $500 million.
* Delaware: 454.6
* Tennessee: 444.2
* Georgia: 433.6
* Florida: 431.4
* Illinois: 423.8
* South Carolina: 423.2
* Pennsylvania: 420
* Rhode Island: 419
* Kentucky: 418.8
* Ohio: 418.6
* Louisiana: 418.2
* North Carolina: 414
* Massachusetts: 411.4
* Colorado: 409.6
* New York: 408.6
* Washington, D.C.: 402.4
Source: U.S. Department of Education
KEY DATES
* June 1: Phase 2 applications due
* September: Phase 2 awards announced
Source: U.S. Department of Education