The Race to the Top competition is in the news again.  This time, according to the Washington Post, we learn which states made it to phase one.  Click here to read more.    Reportedly, the competition has been narrowed to 16 competitors.  Yep.  That's right sixteen states out of fifty.  So what about the rest of us?  Are the states that either chose not to participate or didn't qualify somehow less worthy of government assistance?  Seems to me like this Race to the Top is actually a Race to Destruction for public education.  While the competition encourages innovations in the way school is approached, it simulataneously puts major restrictions on the tried and true methods that are currently in limbo because of lack of funding.  The Obama administration's attempt to re-vamp public education is in fact contributing greatly to it's fall.