Ed Money Watch

At Ed Money Watch, we discuss and analyze major issues affecting education funding. In our Friday News Roundup, we try to highlight interesting stories that might otherwise get overlooked. These stories emphasize how federal and state policy changes can affect local schools and districts.

Limited Loan Access Makes Community Colleges Hard to Afford

Texas Schools Use College Prep Money for Various Needs

Report Highlights Risks of Merit Pay

UPDATE: Updates on State Fiscal Stabilization Applications can be viewed here.

The State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) is the largest source of education funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This fund is intended to help states fill the gaps in both their K-12 and higher education budgets caused by the recent economic climate. Although most states are in the process of submitting or waiting for approval of their State Fiscal Stabilization Fund applications, 13 states have already started to receive funds. Below we discuss the applications that these states submitted for how they intend to use the SFSF funds they have been allocated.

In the application, each state is required to present how much of the Education Stabilization funds (81.8 percent of the total SFSF allocation) it will use in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 for K-12 and higher education separately and how much money will remain for use in 2011. Additionally, states are required to describe how they will spend their Government Services funds (18.2 percent of the SFSF allocation).

The New America Foundation’s Federal Education Budget Project (FEBP) yesterday released "Summary and Analysis of President Obama's Education Budget Request - Fiscal Year 2010," an issue brief that provides a brief summary of the President's education budget request, released on May 7th. The President's 2010 budget request marks the first time the Obama administration has submitted funding recommendations for every federal education program and a comprehensive list of new education policy initiatives.
 

At Ed Money Watch, we discuss and analyze major issues affecting education funding. In our Friday News Roundup, we try to highlight interesting stories that might otherwise get overlooked. These stories emphasize how federal and state policy changes can affect local schools and districts.

Obama Offers Compromise on DC Voucher Program

Schools Consider Four-Day Weeks to Reduce Costs

President's Budget Outlines Funding for Teacher Merit Pay

President Barack Obama submitted his first budget request to Congress on Thursday, May 7, 2009. This request follows the initial summary budget request he submitted in February that included only proposed funding levels for federal programs and agencies in aggregate. The detailed budget request includes proposed funding levels for federal programs and agencies in aggregate for the upcoming five to ten fiscal years, and specific fiscal year 2010 funding levels for programs subject to appropriations. The president's 2010 budget request marks the first time the Obama administration has submitted funding recommendations for every federal education program and a comprehensive list of new education policy initiatives.

In an effort to heighten the quality of debate on federal education policy, the New America Foundation's Federal Education Budget Project has reviewed the president's proposals and generated a list of key questions policymakers, the media, stakeholder groups, and the public should ask about the proposals.

Early Education

In 2006, President Bush signed two new higher education grant programs into law: the Academic Competitiveness (ACG) and Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) grant programs. Both have received mixed reviews from the higher education community, and recent reports from the Department of Education have shed new light on the programs' fledgling operations. This information will certainly affect Congress and the president's decision to extend the programs which are set to expire after fiscal year 2010. The Obama Administration's full fiscal year 2010 budget, expected to be released as early as this week, might give the first clue as to what the new Administration plans to propose for the grant programs. In the meantime, let's take a brief look at what we know about the programs.

 At Ed Money Watch, we discuss and analyze major issues affecting education funding. In our Friday News Roundup, we try to highlight interesting stories that might otherwise get overlooked. These stories emphasize how federal and state policy changes can affect local schools and districts.

Oregon Bill Would Ease School Requirements

Connecticut Legislators Debate Best Use of Stimulus Money

New Jersey Supreme Court Hears Arguments on School Funding Formula Reforms

Stimulus Transparency Off to a Slow Start

The Department of Education (ED) recently released a document titled "Using ARRA Funds to Drive School Reform and Improvement" as an addendum to previous stimulus guidance.  The document provides recommendations on how to use the new State Fiscal Stabilization, Title I, and IDEA stimulus funds to encourage reform and student achievement while preventing funding cliffs. Although some of the recommendations present valuable ways for states and school districts to spend the stimulus money, many of them are either overly simplistic or overly complex and distract from the stimulus' goal of saving or creating jobs.

The recommendations are separated into five parts - the first four mirror the four reform goals identified in the stimulus legislation (improving standards and assessments, establishing data systems, increasing teacher effectiveness and distribution, and improving low performing schools) while the final section pertains to improving results for all students.  The recommendations range from simple activities districts should already be doing to pie-in-the-sky education reform efforts that few administrators have been able to master, and everything in between.

It appears that House and Senate Democrats have agreed to include "budget reconciliation instructions" aimed at reforming federal student loan programs in the fiscal year 2010 budget resolution. The House and Senate each adopted their own versions of the 2010 budget resolution several weeks ago and will bring a final compromise version up for a vote this week. The most important piece of the budget resolution for education programs is the reconciliation instruction. What is budget reconciliation and why is it important?

Reconciliation is one part of the larger congressional budget resolution, an agreement between House and Senate majorities on spending and revenue levels for the five or ten upcoming fiscal years. (The 2010 budget resolution covers 2010 through 2014.) The budget resolution is not legislation. It serves only as a set of self-imposed guidelines that Congress uses to shape legislation considered later in the year. Importantly, it cannot be filibustered in the Senate, requiring only a simple majority vote to pass.

Georgia Math and Science Teachers Get a Salary Bump

California Proposition Could Bring $9.3 billion to California Schools

In a Struggling Economy, Student Loan Default Rates Soar