TRENTON — After making a high-profile bid for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education reform money, New Jersey fell three points short of receiving "Race to the Top" funding, in part because of an error by the Christie administration in the state's application, records obtained by The Star-Ledger show.

One five-point question on the application asked for budget information comparing the 2008 and 2009 school years. However, the state submitted information comparing the current year to 2011.

That mistake cost the state 4.8 points. The state lost points in other areas as well, the records show.

In the end, New Jersey received 437.8 out of a possible 500 points, placing it 11th in the competition, just behind Ohio, which received $400 million and was the last state to receive funding. The winners of the $4.35 billion competition were announced today in Washington, D.C.

"New Jersey did not supply the 2008-2009 data as required and therefore forfeits the points," said the report from one of the federal reviewers scoring the competition.

According to the program’s rules, there is no appeal process.

Gov. Chris Christie signed off on the application, which stressed tenure reform, merit pay and school choice, on June 1.

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Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Christie, confirmed today that an "error" was made on the application but did not say who was responsible. Education Commissioner Bret Schundler and other officials from his department learned of the error when they made an in-person presentation in Washington two weeks ago, she said.

"Obviously we were disappointed not to receive the funding," Comella said. "But at the end of the day, we stand behind these reforms and we need to move forward on them quickly."

The New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, called the loss of the funding "a direct result of Gov. Christie’s misguided decision to hijack the grant application process for his own political purposes."

NJEA spokeswoman Dawn Hiltner said the union "wanted to work with the governor to win this grant."

Derek Roseman, spokesman for Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), compared it to losing easy points on a standardized test.

"These points should have been a gimme," he said. "This is like losing 200 points on the SAT because you didn’t write your name on the top sheet."

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) called the error a "stunning $400 million mistake."

"It’s astonishing that the administration’s failure to proofread their own homework would lead to losing out on this funding that could have gone such a long way toward improving our educational system," she said.

New Jersey’s application was submitted after a heated battle between Christie and the NJEA.

The union and hundreds of its local chapters had signed onto an earlier version of the application, in which Schundler had agreed to compromises on tenure and merit pay. But the administration hastily rewrote the application over the Memorial Day weekend, scrapping the agreed-to changes.

The final application, which was submitted without the backing of the NJEA, was driven to Washington the day of the deadline because the papers could not be faxed or e-mailed.

"On Friday of Memorial Day weekend we all signed off on the same application," Hiltner said. "By Tuesday morning, a different application had been submitted. How much time could have been put into that application?"

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Today’s announcement was for a second round of Race to the Top funding. As in Round One, New Jersey lost points because it had not fully implemented a computer program to track students’ academic progress, for failing to clearly articulate its education reform agenda, and for not securing enough school district and teacher union support.

However, the state did receive high marks in other areas. It got almost full points for developing and adopting common college- and career-ready standards, and another nearly perfect score on its efforts to turn around the state’s lowest-performing schools.

Comella noted that the state’s application for Round One, which was submitted by the Corzine administration, did not reach the final round.

"This was a strong, comprehensive package of reforms that received praise from the fedearal Department of Education," she said. "There were a lot of good, strong applications from competitive states."

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said his department received "many more competitive applications than money to fund them," and said he hopes to create a third phase of Race to the Top funding next year. The department has requested $1.35 billion to fund it.

"There were many great applications we would have loved to have funded," he said. " We simply didn’t have the dollars to do it."

The 10 winners announced today were: the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island. The grants vary, from $700 million for New York and Florida, to $75 million for smaller states such as Hawaii, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia.

By Jeanette Rundquist and Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger

Staff writer Lisa Fleisher contributed to this report.