MDR's Free Webinar Series
March 11, 2010
Education Funding – Where We Are in 2010
Questions asked during the webinar...
A number of specific questions were asked during the “Education Funding – Where We Are in 2010” webinar, and I’ve attempted to answer them below. Just a word of caution: The 2011 budget request and the priorities it sets out for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization are just proposals. They set a framework but right now are not very detailed. There’re signs that the Department of Education is getting close to submitting a detailed plan for what it would like to see happen in the ESEA reauthorization, but even that will be a proposal. It’s very early in the process, and there’ll be a lot of discussion and many compromises made before it’s all over.
Anne Wujcik
Senior Education Research Analyst
Q&A Summary:
Q: Will there be funding or directions for specifically focused spending for libraries to buy library items, books, eBooks, magazines, etc., but not light bulbs, paper, laminate and other materials that don’t truly help kids with reading and learning?
A: Library funding is not included in the 2011 request as a discrete item. The $19.1 million allocated to Literacy Through School Libraries in the 2010 budget is consolidated into the Literacy portion of the proposed Effective Teaching and Learning program.
Q: Who can submit for these competitive grants for STEM? Is it only available to nonprofit institutions?
A: State Education Agencies (SEAs) and SEAs in partnership with outside entities (such as nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education) may apply.
Q: Are the validation or development grants for new customers or existing customers?
A: Investing in Innovation (i3) Development Grants provide funding to support high-potential and relatively untested practices, strategies, or programs whose efficacy should be systematically studied. An applicant must provide a rationale for the proposed practice, strategy, or program that’s based on research findings or reasonable hypotheses, including related research or theories in education and other sectors.
i3 Validation Grants provide funding to support practices, strategies, or programs that
show promise, but for which there’s currently only moderate evidence that the proposed practice, strategy, or program will have a statistically significant effect on improving student achievement or student growth, closing achievement gaps, decreasing dropout rates, increasing high school graduation rates, or increasing college enrollment and completion rates and that, with further study, the effect of implementing the proposed practice, strategy, or program may prove to be substantial and important.
Q: Is this funding going to be aimed or benefit more curriculum companies versus library companies?
A: States and districts will have to decide what priorities they want to address using the funding available. There’s no reason why library resources could not be purchased using funds allocated to Effective Teaching and Learning (Literacy, STEM, Well-Rounded Education) or using Title I funds. They key is whether the materials being purchased will contribute to improving students achievement. States and districts will be looking for evidence of effectiveness.
Q: Where can we scan state info?
A: State budget tables can be found at http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/statetables/index.html.
The state applications for Race to the Top are found at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase1-applications/index.html.
Q: Difference between “turnaround” and “transformation”?
A: Under the School Improvement Grants, the Turnaround Model is defined as one which includes replacing the principal and rehiring no more than 50% of the school’s staff, adopting a new governance structure, and implementing an instructional program that’s research-based and vertically aligned from one grade to the next as well as aligned with a state’s academic standards.
Replace the principal who led the school prior to commencement of the transformation model.
5. Implement such strategies as financial incentives, increased opportunities for promotion and career growth, and more flexible work conditions that are designed to recruit, place, and retain staff with the skills necessary to meet the needs of the students in a transformation model.
Q: Where can we find the RTTT proposals submitted by the finalists?
A: The state applications for Race to the Top are found at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase1-applications/index.html.
Reviewers’ comments and score sheets will be added to the site once awards are announced. The Department also plans to videotape the in-person presentations of the 16 RTTT finalists and expects to post those as well.
Q: Do any of these changes affect public library funding?
A: No, the discussion was limited to federal funding for K-12 school systems.
Q: Can you explain why so many states are putting budget freezes on schools?
A: States are required by law to balance their budgets. They cannot operate at a deficit. State revenues have been so adversely affected by the economic downturn that they’re having a hard time keeping their budgets in balance. Leading economists believe the U.S. economy began a recovery sometime in the third quarter of 2009. But state finances are not expected to recover for at least two years, according to the National Council of State Legislators. History shows that state budgets continue to struggle long after a national recession ends as high unemployment rates erode earnings and lower personal income tax collections. This condition also undermines consumers’ willingness to spend money, which hurts sales tax collections. Nationally, these two revenue sources account for 66.5% of all state taxes.
Certainly, current conditions are very difficult. As budgeting for FY2010 began, states faced a collective budget gap of $145 billion, which they did close. Since FY2010 began on July 1, 2009, shortfalls have opened in 41 states, totaling $35 billion. Additionally, many states already foresee budget gaps in FY2011 and FY2012. As principal revenue sources—personal income, general sales, and corporate income taxes—continue to erode, 35 states and Puerto Rico project a cumulative budget gap of $55.5 billion in FY2011.
Q: Just confirming…Safe and Drug-Free School funding is actually increasing? Just want to make sure that the following areas will be covered under grant funding: drug free, bullying, and violence. What is covered under Healthy Students/Safe Schools?
A: Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities was funded at $191.3 million in
FY2010. The proposed funding level for Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students is $410 million. Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students consolidates six existing programs (Elementary and Secondary School Counseling, Physical Education Program, Foundations for Learning, Mental Health Integration in Schools, Alcohol Abuse Reduction, and Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities), which were funded at a total of $365 million in FY2010.
Under Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students, the Department proposes awarding grants to increase the capacity of states, districts, and schools to create safe, healthy, and drug-free environments in a comprehensive manner, so that students are able to focus on learning and teachers on teaching. Further, it would provide increased flexibility for states and local educational agencies to design strategies that best reflect the needs of their students and communities, including programs to (1) improve school climate by reducing drug use, violence, or harassment or improving school safety; (2) improve students’ physical health and well-being through the use of, or provision of access to, comprehensive services that improve student nutrition, physical activity, and fitness; and (3) improve students’ mental health and well-being through the use of, or provision of access to, comprehensive services, such as counseling, health and mental health services, and social services.
The new program would also include a national activities authority, under which the Department would reserve funds for school emergency preparedness initiatives for elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education; comprehensive, communitywide “Safe Schools/Healthy Students” drug and violence prevention projects; a national clearinghouse of best practices; and drug prevention and campus safety program.
Q: What do you anticipate the impact will be of consolidating the literacy grants?
A: There’re several possibilities. The proposed consolidation will allow states and schools to fund literacy activities at all levels, thereby allowing them to expand programming to middle and high schools. This more integrated and comprehensive approach could be very powerful.
But it also means that more people will be competing for a share of the money. Programs losing dedicated funding include Early Reading First, Striving Readers, Even Start, Literacy Through School Libraries, National Writing Project, Reading Is Fundamental, and Ready-To-Learn Television.
Q: We currently have a catalog for Title I—it’s called Title I. Should we now be calling this something different considering the name adjustment?
A: It may be early to rename the catalog (since reauthorization of ESEA is unlikely this year), but you may want to think about adjusting your messaging so that you’re emphasizing the ways in which your materials support the goal of graduating all students college- and career-ready. That language will continue to be used by the administration no matter what happens with the ESEA reauthorization, and it’s also the language used by the Common Core State Standards movement.
Q: As a software reseller, who should we talk to at schools regarding these grants?
A: The College- and Career-Ready Students program (if it passes) will be handled by existing Title I personnel, so reaching out to your existing contacts should work. Various people responsible for curriculum will be the primary contacts for the three parts of the Effective Teaching and Learning program.
Q: Address impact of national math/reading standards on adoption process.
A: It’s probably a little early in the process to predict the impact. Books submitted for approval in the adoption process are reviewed to determine the extent to which they align with each state’s standards, but other things are also considered in the adoption process. If 20 or more states actually agree to implement the Common Core State Standards, it would seem to imply economies of scale for the textbook publishers, who could align to one set of standards as opposed to one set for each state. But what implementation will really look like remains to be seen. It does seem certain that there’ll be changes, but what they’ll be is hard to say.
Q: Are there any proposed monies available for physical education in response to the First Lady’s Let’s Move Campaign?
A: Under Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students, improving students’ physical health and well-being through the use of, or provision of access to, comprehensive services that improve student nutrition, physical activity, and fitness is an identified goal.
Q: How do you see this affecting higher education, if at all?
A: The funding issues discussed pertain to K-12. At a higher level, the administration is supporting a pK-20 perspective, so there’s likely to be encouragement of ongoing dialog, efforts to align K-12 standards for what students know and can do with colleges’ expectations of incoming freshmen, extension of data systems to track students beyond 12th grade and even beyond college graduation and more systemic contact between the two systems. There’re also implications for the Colleges of Education and the ways in which they prepare future teachers.
Q: Will the Effective Teaching and Learning for a Complete Education grants be federal grants or will it be state block grants?
A: The budget document says, “This proposed new program would provide competitive grants to state educational agencies (SEAs) or SEAs in partnership with outside entities (such as nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education).” That seems to say the Department will run national competitions, with the SEAs submitting grant proposals.
Q: Career Readiness could be taken to mean Voc Ed. What are the thoughts about Voc Ed and when one starts channeling students from college-ready to career-ready?
A: The budget includes $1.3 billion for the Career and Technical Education (CTE) State Grants program which supports, among other things, continued improvement and upgrading of CTE programs as part of a strategy for improving high school education and preparing high school students to enter the workplace or pursue postsecondary education.
The budget request states, “The request for Career and Technical Education funding would support attainment of the President’s goal that, regardless of educational path after high school, all Americans are prepared to enroll in at least one year of higher education or job training so as to better prepare themselves for challenging careers in a 21st century economy.”
That’s not a direct answer, but it’s as much as has been articulated at present.
Q: How do you get schools to see past the budget freeze/issues when you fall into all the new changes and align to all state standards? For example, if you have a product that already meets everything that the plan is looking at already in place, how can we help schools get behind that and start getting schools excited?
A: It can be difficult to get schools out of a short-term focus on budget problems. You have to talk to them in terms of their current pain points and show how your products can help them work better, faster, smarter. Shift the conversation away from what they can’t do to what they really want to do and how they’re going to do it.
Q: Is there a change to how Title I funds can be spent?
A: Not that has been spelled out at this point in time, but the budget request is short on details.
Q: Where would assistive technology products best fit—in the College- and Career-Ready grants?
A: The budget includes $11.75 billion for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) State Grants, which will continue to operate as a formula program. Assistive technology products are typically purchased with IDEA funds.
Under IDEA there’s also $41.2 million for Technology and Media services, a program which makes competitive awards for research, development, and other activities that promote the use of technology, including universal design features, in providing special education and early intervention services. Funds also support media-related activities, such as providing video description and captioning of films and television appropriate for use in classrooms for individuals with visual and hearing impairments and increasing the availability of textbooks in accessible formats for individuals with visual impairments and other print disabilities.
Q: There still seems to be a huge disconnect between core standards and media arts. Huge layoffs and position cuts continue in this area. How are we addressing that?
A: Other than the consolidated funding in the Well-Rounded Education portion of the Effective Teaching and Learning program, media arts does not seem to be addressed.
