The local districts in Oscoda County have both decided to turn their noses up at the RTTT.  Their reasoning is that they have no clue as to what they would even be signing up for.

The bureaucrats and educators who are blindly searching for this blessed money have no idea what strings will be attached either.  In fact, the $400 million or so that Michigan is pining for might come with a price tag of $600 million or so in mandates.  No one really knows.  

Reforming schools is going to be no walk in the park, but it would be a lot easier if governments would make some basic changes.  And, like you point out, RTTT is not necessary for these changes to take place.  

Give local districts and parents control.  Allow them to dispense with all the rules and regulations put in place by union minded legislators that do nothing but shackle districts with red tape and high expense.  Allow them to tell Lansing to go screw itself when it tries to dictate newfangled regulations that do little but force schools into staffs top heavy with administration.  

Allow districts to toss unruly students out into the street, and allow districts to toss ineffective teachers out into the street right along with them.  

The most obvious point to this is that  none of these legislators ever had to try and learn biology taught by Mrs. Ninelips while sitting in the same classroom as the Tornado Brothers.  That trio probably cost me 3 points on my composite ACT score all by themselves not to mention the huge hit I took on my IQ.  Lansing and Washington have, at least up until this point, not only ignored classrooms such as that one, but have even impeded the ability of districts to do much of anything about them.  They are wise in that way.