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North Carolina filed its race to the top application Monday. My colleague Brian Ewing details the proposal and some of its implications in a story today. (Click here).

For those who are curious, click here for the application itself (a rather large PDF) and click here for Gov. Bev Perdue’s transmittal letter.

Further background is here.

The quick summary is this: Race to the Top is a federal grant program created in the stimulus bill from which North Carolina could land $400-million-plus if it wins in a competitive grant process. That competition is scored mainly on how closely North Carolina schools are adopting federal education priorities set by the Obama administration.

With many folks off for the MLK holiday, folk wanting to make a political/practical point about application mostly waited until today. Chief among those were folks in the Charter School community, who have been lobbying North Carolina to raise or eliminate its cap on charters for more than a decade now. Along with Sen. Eddie Goodall, chater supporters held a news conference at the General Assembly Tuesday.

Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, said the state’s Race to the Top application would be hurt because it doesn’t say much about charter schools. Allison made the case that North Carolina’s whole approach to charters was out-of-date.

“North Carolina on the other hand, we fear, could lose the chance to secure these precious points in a highly competitive point…due to a lack of growth in charter school policy. In light of these facts, many of us ask the question that instead of racing to the top for this critical funding, is North Carolina – in fact – racing to the bottom?” Allison said.

Click here the player below to listen to more of his statement.

However, the Obama administration downgraded the emphasis on charters somewhat this summer, which North Carolina seemed to take as the go ahead to push on without doing much to change laws or policies in the area.

But Todd Ziebarth, with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said the application guidelines still favor charters. He acknowledged there were other points in the offing for creating innovation in schools, but said those lines weren’t weighted as heavily.

“In terms of the scoring, it’s not going to have nearly as much impact as the charter schools,” Ziebarth said.

Click below for more of his answer on this question.

A couple quick observations:

• Ziebarth went so far as to say his group has asked the U.S. Dept. of Education to kick back North Carolina’s application for first round funding and that the state shouldn’t see any race to the top money until it does more to make its laws more favorable to charters. Lawmakers and others who presented Tuesday said that North Carolina needed the money and didn’t seem ready to turn it away on principle.
   
• The charter folks made their big pitch on the day the RTTT applications were due, rather than a couple months ago when the thing was still being thrown together. That is just to say that they’re making their play when it’s just about too late to do anything constructive for their cause, other than piggy-back on what publicity there is surrounding RTTT.

Also worth noting, President Barack Obama mentioned charter schools in an address on Race to the Top today:

And even before states have received a single dime of taxpayer money, many of them have committed to instituting important reforms to better position themselves for a Race to the Top grant. Forty-eight states have now joined a nationwide partnership to develop a common set of rigorous, career-ready standards in reading and math. Wisconsin has enacted legislation permitting schools to link student achievement to the performance of teachers and principals. In Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee, California, we've seen changes in laws or policies to let public charter schools expand and succeed. These are public schools with more independence that are formed by teachers, parents, and community members.

So by rewarding some of these states submitting applications today, by extending the Race to the Top for states, by launching a Race to the Top among school districts, and by applying the principles of Race to the Top to other federal programs, we'll build on this success. We're going to raise the bar for all our students and take bigger steps towards closing the achievement gap that denies so many students, especially black and Latino students, a fair shot at their dreams.

 I have more audio of the Q+A from the NC charter presser, including questions about how North Carolina charter advocates make the case for raising the cap when all 100 charter slots have never been filled in the state. Click below.