Lansing -- Michigan was not among the states chosen as finalists today for up to a $500 million share of federal funding in the Race to the Top school reform program.

The U.S. Department of Education revealed the states on the finalist list for the first phase of funding. Selected from a pool of 41 applicants were Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee. The winners will be chosen in April.

The announcement doesn't necessarily mean Michigan won't get funding. A second round of applications will be accepted in June.

"We always believed it was in Michigan's best interest to apply for Race to the Top funding early, even if we didn't receive a penny in the first round of funding," Gov. Jennifer Granholm said.

"The Department of Education will now provide us with detailed feedback on our plan, allowing us to strengthen our application for round two. We look forward to making the case that the reforms we are putting in place will help us build the best-educated work force in the country -- a vital part of our strategy to grow and diversify Michigan's economy."

Doug Pratt, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association, said the state may have been a finalist had teachers and other educators been more involved in the application process.

"I imagine states that were named finalists embraced the collaborative nature of this as opposed to here in Michigan, where school employees were dictated to," said Doug Pratt, spokesman for the association. "It's unfortunate we now have laws on the books without the money to implement them."

The teachers union did not endorse the state's Race to the Top application and urged local unions not to participate in the program. Teachers were unhappy with reforms lawmakers passed in December that link teacher pay, promotions and tenure to their students' performance on standardized tests. Union leaders also said they were asked to sign off on a 600-page application they had not seen.

State schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan said that despite not making the cut in this first round of Race to the Top, the state will continue to implement the recently enacted education reform laws.

"Although it would've been nice to get funding in this first round, our schools and our students cannot wait, and we will continue designing this new education system to move Michigan forward," he said.

Michigan had hoped to win up to $526 million from the Race to the Top program, the Obama administration's national competition to reward states committed to education reform.

The $4.35 billion contest has propelled historic reforms in Michigan and nationwide as states scrambled to meet a January deadline to apply.

Michigan lawmakers in December passed a five-bill reform package that raised the high school dropout age to 18, paved the way to open more charter schools, gave the state power to seize control of failing schools, opened up alternative paths to teacher certification, and ended long-standing union protections for ineffective teachers.

The House Appropriations Committee today failed to pass funding to administer some of the reforms. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved $492,800 to hire staff to implement reforms.