Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will announce finalists for Race to the Top grants tomorrow, reports the Wall Street Journal (winners will be announced in April):
The Department of Education turned to a panel of outside judges to help pick finalists and winners according to an elaborate scoring system, and on Thursday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan will announce finalists for the first of two rounds of funding. Administration officials declined to comment, but people familiar with the deliberations said as few as five states could actually qualify when the first round of winners is announced in April.
The competition has unleashed widespread speculation over which states are most likely to emerge as favorites. Education lobbyists and academics have spent weeks scouring the applications, which weighed in at more than 24,000 pages. Experts said Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, Delaware, Colorado and Rhode Island put forward particularly strong applications, with Georgia, Illinois and Indiana also mentioned.
Applications from California and other states are posted here.
Rachel Norton 
A little satire puts it all in perspective (well, except for the Central Falls 93):
In a last ditch effort to help their states qualify for “Race to the Top” funding, a growing number of school districts around the country have begun summarily firing all of their teachers. The strong public support by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and President Obama for the recent Central Falls, Rhode Island school board decision to fire every one of the district’s 100 teachers has apparently spurred a nationwide effort to do likewise in order to secure Federal stimulus funds.
At last count, GBN News estimates that over 253,000 teachers have already been fired in 34 states, and the number continues to grow by the hour.
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2010/03/race-till-they-drop.html