Metro

NY wins first heat

New York was named one of 16 state finalists in a competition for $4.35 billion in federal education aid — but officials and advocates still pegged the bid as a long shot to bring home any bacon.

The news that the state was still in the running for as much as $700 million in “Race to the Top” funding came as a surprise to many officials, who viewed New York politicians’ inability to raise the cap on the number of charter schools or bolster the use of student data in evaluating teachers as significant holes in its application.

Even Mayor Bloomberg downplayed New York’s chances of being named a winner in the first round of the competition, characterizing the state as being “on life support.”

“We’re not trying to be a finalist. We’re trying to be a winner, and, as you know, we have two big strikes against us so far,” Bloomberg said. “We’ve got some life here, but we’re on life support.”

Several states that failed to enact significant educational reforms were named as finalists, raising doubts on whether federal officials would keep their promise to award money only to those that embraced President Obama’s reform agenda.

“It’s a little disappointing as far as using the program to produce real, long-lasting change,” said Marcus Winters, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who questioned why so many of the 41 applicants were named finalists.

“As a first sign, it’s more than a little concerning,” he said.

But federal officials said all 16 states that received an initial nod had scored at least 400 on a 500-point rating of their applications.

New York educators said their application was relatively strong in areas like teacher training and certification and in student assessments.

US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan emphasized that fewer than 10 states would take home money just by making the cut in Round 1.

“There was never going to be one deciding factor,” Duncan said. “Every state had relative strengths. Every state had relative weaknesses . . . No state had a perfect application.”

Finalists will have a chance to present their cases to federal officials in coming weeks before Round 1 winners are announced next month.

There is a June 1 deadline for a second round of applications.

Though federal officials said legislative changes states enact now to enhance their applications would be considered too late to affect the first-round judging, New York education advocates urged lawmakers not to wait until Round 2 before taking action.

“The state Legislature should press ahead and enact reforms to maximize its grant opportunity for the full $700 million — now,” said Bill Phillips, president of the New York Charter Schools Association.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com