New Jersey just missed out on its bid for a “Race to the Top” federal education grant, and it’s all thanks to a single paperwork error.

As part of the “Race to the Top” federal education grant program, dozens of states applied for the highly sought-after funds to help struggling public schools. To determine which states would be granted the aid, each had to fill out a lengthy application that was then scored on a 500-point system.

New Jersey state officials had hoped to win the federal funding, but the recent results showed the state finished as first runner-up, just three points behind the lowest-scoring grant-recipient, Ohio.

Losing out on the grants was hard enough, but looking at the scoring documents from the applications shows that New Jersey received zero points on a section because the state included budget figures for 2010-2011, rather than the 2008-2009 figures that were supposed to be attached.

The section was worth 4.8 points on the scoring chart, and would have been just enough to place New Jersey ahead of Ohio.

Governor Chris Christie claimed there would be no negative consequences for the paperwork error, which has been attributed to a single unidentified staffer in the state’s Department of Education.

Tags: Chris Christie, Education grant, New Jersey, Race to the Top