Racing to the Top

West Virginia is not among the finalists for the first round of federal "Race to the Top" education grants, bringing into play Gov. Joe Manchin's State of the State pledge to convene a special session to ensure it qualifies in the next round.

But Manchin tells The Associated Press and others that he first needs to see why the state fell short before outlining an agenda.

In the meantime, "state schools Superintendent Steve Paine, administrators, teachers unions, educators and others" are ready to "tweak their application and resubmit it by June 1, the deadline for the second round," AP reports.

"West Virginia education officials invested more than 4,500 hours trying to land $80 million for educational reforms," the article notes.

Others with coverage include The Charleston Gazette, MetroNews and the Charleston Daily Mail.