States Change Laws in Hopes of Race to Top Edge

States across the country rushed to pass legislation ahead of the Jan. 19 deadline for the first round of Race to the Top Fund applications in hopes of boosting their chances in the federal grant competition.

But pressures from school boards and teachers’ unions, particularly with respect to charter schools, led legislators in some states to scrap measures that their governors said were necessary to earn points toward securing some of the $4 billion in federal economic-stimulus funds.

The recent spate of policymaking activity related to the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top...