Education



A government website that may be helpful is: [|ed.gov] The bill, which President Obama signed on Tuesday February 17, 2009, will double federal spending on disadvantaged and disabled children, includes hefty increases in the main federal college scholarship program and for Head Start, and, for the first time, makes billions in federal dollars available for school renovation. This piece is from a news source and may contained biased information. Date: 2/16/09 source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/education/17educ.html?_r=1&ref=education This source is reliable because it comes from a credible newspaper. We applaud efforts to promote school choice initiatives that give parents more control over their children’s education. By the same token, we defend the option for home schooling and call for vigilant enforcement of laws designed to protect family rights and privacy in education. Children should not be compelled to answer offensive or intrusive questionnaires. If you are looking for a Republican view on Education Here is a reliable source. []

The nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education’s current budget. Congress allocated $79 billion to help states facing large fiscal shortfalls maintain government services, and especially to avoid cuts to education programs, from pre-kindergarten through higher education. Obama administration officials, teachers unions and associations representing school boards, colleges and other institutions in American education said the aid would bring crucial financial relief to the nation’s 15,000 school districts and to thousands of campuses otherwise threatened with severe cutbacks. But Republicans strongly criticized some of the proposals as wasteful spending and an ill-considered expansion of the federal government’s role, traditionally centered on aid to needy students, into new realms like local school construction. New York would be among the biggest beneficiaries, at $760 per student, while New Jersey and Connecticut would fall near the bottom, with $427 and $409 per student, respectively. The District of Columbia would get the most per student, $1,289, according to the foundation’s analysis. In recent years the federal government has contributed 9 percent of the nation’s total spending on public schools, with states and local districts financing the rest. Washington has contributed 19 percent of spending on higher education. The stimulus package would raise those federal proportions significantly. The Department of Education’s discretionary budget for the 2008 fiscal year was about $60 billion. The stimulus bill would raise that to about $135 billion this year, and to about $146 billion in 2010. Other federal agencies would administer about $20 billion in additional education-related spending. Date: 3/1/09 source:Sam Dillion "Stimulus Plan Would Provide Flood of Aid to Education" []

The largest education item is $20 billion for renovation and modernization of school buildings, including technology upgrades and energy efficiency improvements. That total number includes $14 billion for K-12 and $6 billion for higher education as well as $100 million for school construction in communities that lack a local property tax base because they contain non-taxable federal lands such as military bases or Indian reservations and $25 billion specifically for charter schools – a popular campaign issue for Democrats and Republicans alike.
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Education snags $105.9B in stimulus package __** The final $787 billion stimulus bill that President Obama is expected to sign today contains $105.9 billion for education, including $650 million for the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program. The two groups noted President Obama's commitment to education, and urged Congress to increase ed-tech funding levels in FY09 and FY10. An estimated $9.9 billion total investment is needed to ensure that all Title I schools have effective, technology-rich classrooms, according to the groups. The EETT funding in the stimulus bill "will provide critical support to states, districts, and schools to respond to warnings from the business community that students are not being prepared for the intellectual demands of the modern workplace," said Mary Ann Wolf, executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association. "Schools are ready, willing, and able to make technology a critical component of education, so that education focuses on what students need to learn and how students need to learn to compete in the modern workforce... For a wireless nation that relies on technology for ordinary tasks and extraordinary achievements, it is time for technology to occupy a prominent place in education operations." The stimulus package will help essential funding find its way to schools in the midst of budget deficits and "will help cash-strapped school districts avoid program cuts, prevent teacher layoffs, invest in school modernization and increase funding for Title I, special education, and other important programs," said a statement from the American Association of School Administrators. Acknowledging that the bill does lack some key funding areas that educators enthusiastically supported, the administrators' group said that while the bill "does not include the level of funding for school construction included in the House version of the bill," it is still a solid step in the right direction.

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- $39.5 billion to local school districts using existing funding formulas, which can be used for preventing cutbacks and layoffs, for school modernization or for other purposes - $5 billion to states as bonus grants for meeting key performance measures in education - $8.8 billion to states for high-priority needs such as public safety and other critical services, which may include education, and for modernization, renovation and repairs of facilities at public schools and institutes of higher education || source: [billionGrants to local school districts$79 billionState fiscal relief to prevent cuts in state aid$21 billionSchool modernizationsource: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123202946622485595.html|http://www.npr.org/news/graphics/2009/feb/stimulus/]
 * ~ $105.9 billion* ||~ Education and Training, including ||
 * $53.6 billion || State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, including:
 * $13 billion || Title 1 to help close the achievement gap and enable disadvantaged students to reach their potential ||
 * $12.2 billion || Special Education/IDEA to improve educational outcomes for disabled children ||
 * $15.6 billion || Increase the maximum Pell grant by $500 ||
 * $3.95 billion || Job training, including state formula grants for adult, dislocated worker and youth programs (including $1.2 billion to create up to 1 million summer jobs for youth) ||

Eric Nix More than $100 billion of the massive stimulus package is marked for education programs in both K-12 education and higher education, much of it through existing laws and programs such as Pell Grants, IDEA, and Title I. Republicans have criticized spending in this area as being too slow to take effect, but observers predict that much of the education spending will remain since few lawmakers want to be perceived as anti-education. The largest education item is $20 billion for renovation and modernization of school buildings, including technology upgrades and energy efficiency improvements. That total number includes $14 billion for K-12 and $6 billion for higher education as well as $100 million for school construction in communities that lack a local property tax base because they contain non-taxable federal lands such as military bases or Indian reservations and $25 billion specifically for charter schools – a popular campaign issue for Democrats and Republicans alike. State and local governments typically bear the burden for un- or under-funded state mandates imposed by the federal government with the goal of improving K-12 education and often have to cut other programs in order to pay for the mandated ones. Many will be grateful to see that this bill includes grant money to help them meet some of these mandates, such as $13 billion in formula grants to increase the federal share of mandated special education costs. Another $13 billion for Title I programs for disadvantaged children and $66 million for formula grants to provide serves for homeless children recognize the unique strain the economic downturn places on schools. Merit pay is a much discussed, very controversial issue in education reform circles and generally opposed by teacher unions who typically support Democratic candidates. During the campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama expressed support for the concept, pledging to work with unions to develop merit standards. Perhaps recognizing the value of financial incentives for governments as well as teachers, the bill includes $200 million for competitive grants to school districts and states who wish to provide incentives for teachers and principals who raise student achievement and close achievement gaps. Democrats are also attempting to use this bill as way to increase federal support of higher education through financial aid. $15.6 billion would be used to increase Pell Grants, $490 million would go to college work-study programs, and $50 million would be given to the Department of Education to administer student aid programs Finally, the bill would benefit early childhood development programs for children in low-income families and those with disabilities. $2.1 billion is marked for Head Start, which bill supporters say would help an additional 110,000 disadvantaged preschoolers enter kindergarten on equal footing as their peers and $600 million would go to formula grants for children with disabilities age 2 and younger. While some of the education spending in the bill will put people quickly to work building schools or re-wiring existing ones, much of the education spending should improve the nation’s economic health by making higher education more accessible, K-12 education of higher quality, and give more students the start they need to be successful. But it will take time to filter down and will require patience – a trait Americans are typically short on. With broad agreement that education is the key to our competitiveness in the future and disagreement about which methods will provide the greatest positive impact, this will certainly not be the last we hear about education during this Congress or presidency. Source: []