In 2009, Secretary Duncan made lifting charter caps a key component of
qualifying for education funding under the $4.35 billion Race to the Top (RTTT)
program. Originally, to qualify for RTTT money, Duncan said states must
eliminate any caps on charter schools. In November 2009, Duncan changed the
requirement so that states with caps could still receive money if they had other
kinds of innovative public schools and as long as the caps were generous enough
(The Wall Street Journal, 2009).