National Education Happenings

[Fred Deutsch]

I participated in a webinar with the National School Board Association on Wednesday about what’s happening on Capitol Hill and the Department of Education. These are the notes I took about what’s going on:

HR 3221 – funding for modernization, repair and renovation passed the House last month. It awaits action in the Senate.

IDEA funding – HR 3578 and S 1652 are bipartisan bills to provide full funding for IDEA. The average cost across the nation to educate a special education student is $10,000. Of this amount, the federal government’s share is 40% ,but currently only pays 17%. The bill would provide for the federal government to pay its full share.

Education Appropriations Bill – HR 3293 passed in the House and is waiting Senate consideration. It involves redirection of $700 million of title I funding for disadvantaged students to competitive grants for school renovation.

Review of how American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds have been spent in education:
a. Primary use has been in state stabilization to save education jobs.
b. Secondary use has been for school reform initiatives.

Race to the Top Review – $4.5 Billion in competitive grants is available to encourage and reward States that are creating the conditions for education innovation and reform — implementing plans in the four education reform areas described in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

School Improvement Grants – increased funding available to all states — $3 Billion. Targeting the lowest performing 5000 schools in the US.

Investing in Innovation (I3) Funds – $650 million in competitive grants are available to support school/nonprofit community partnerships.

Pre-K/Early Learning – HR 3211, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) has passed the House. Nothing has been done yet on the Senate side. SAFRA would invest $1 billion each year over the next eight years to establish an Early Learning Challenge Fund for states. The fund would award grants to states that improve early education standards and practices, and improve the school readiness outcomes of young children.

Education Technology – The FCC has been tasked with creating a national broadband plan by February, 2010. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included initiatives in the Act to accelerate broadband deployment across the United States. The Recovery Act authorizes the FCC to create a National Broadband Plan, that “shall seek to ensure that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal.” To learn more, go to www.broadband.gov.

In addition, the US Department of Education is developing a national Education Technology Plan. A draft plan is expected in early 2010. The emerging framework for the plan focuses on four areas in which technology has the potential to transform education:
a. Learning: Providing access to high-quality learning experiences.
b. Assessment: Measuring what matters and providing the information that enables continuous improvement at all levels of the education system.
c. Teaching: New ways to support those who support learning.
d. Productivity: Redesigning systems and processes to free up education system resources to support learning.

To learn more, go to www.edtechfuture.org.

Last, a note about the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. They have established goals to upgrade educational standards to better meet the needs of the 21st Century. More here: http://www.ostp.gov/

To learn more about national education issues, see www.nsba.org/advocacy.

I also asked if anyone has an idea of what we might expect with the re-authorization of NCLB. The best answer they could give was they anticipate many of the themes seen in the Race to the Top to become part of the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act, but nothing specific quite yet.

(more on my blog at www.school-of-thought.net)