Ed Money Watch

On Tuesday, The Department of Education (ED) released proposed priorities and selection criteria for the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3), a new $650 million pot of funds created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to support the development and expansion of innovative models to improve student achievement and narrow achievement gaps.

Today's announcement confirms that i3 grants would be made in multiple "tiers" based on the presence of evidence of effectiveness for a particular innovation:

Last Thursday, October 1^st, federal fiscal year 2010 officially began. Technically speaking, Congress and the President should have wrapped up the annual appropriations bills by that date, providing fiscal year 2010 funding for about a third of the federal government and nearly all federal education programs.

Only one of the 12 separate appropriation bills -- the bill funding the operations of the legislative branch -- actually made it to the President's desk by the start of the new fiscal year. So, as is common practice, Congress passed a bill called a continuing resolution (CR) to provide federal programs a few weeks of temporary 2010 funding while it works to finalize the rest of the bills. The temporary funding lets programs operate at the 2009 funding levels until October 31^st, 2009.

The Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, which funds federal education programs, is far from its final form at this stage. The House passed its version in the summer while the Senate has yet to indicate when it will consider its committee's bill in the full chamber. Even after Senate passage, the two Houses will need to reconcile some minor funding differences and vote on the compromise version again before the President can sign it into law. That could be many weeks away.

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.

Michigan Governor to Veto Budget Cuts

States Are Not Using Stimulus to Boost Aid for Schools

Education Professionals Ask Illinois to Fund Programs

Alabama Budget Cuts Loom as Tax Revenues Shrink

Last week, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released "Projections of Education Statistics to 2018," a report predicting enrollment and expenditure increases in education over the coming decade.  These projections can provide important information to states and school districts as they seek to invest new funds available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Strategic investments today can help states and school districts cope with rapidly increasing populations, postsecondary institutions prepare for the shifting needs of those seeking higher education, and policymakers rethink investments to better serve schools and students.

PK-12

According to the NCES study, public school enrollment is expected to increase by 9 percent between 2006 and 2018 from 55.3 million to 59.8 million students. This increase will occur mostly in the South and West, with the greatest increases in Arizona, Nevada, and Texas. The Northeast is projected to see a decrease, led by Rhode Island and New York. Nationally, the greatest enrollment increases are expected to occur in the PK-8 grades.

A recently released study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggests that states have been spending increasingly more money - over $640 million in 2007-08 - on creating and implementing academic assessment tests associated with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). While some federal funds have gone to support these efforts, states have provided most of the funds in the past. The findings from this report have particularly important implications now that Education Secretary Duncan has allocated $350 million of the $4.35 billion for Race to the Top grants for improving standards and assessments and 46 states have joined the effort to develop a common core of standards.

The GAO study found that while states spent anywhere from $500,000 to $83 million on state assessments in 2007-08, the majority of these funds went to outside vendors that developed, administered, scored, and reported the results of the tests. A much smaller fraction of the costs cover salaries for state employees that participate in assessment production. Additionally, it appears that test development, as opposed to scoring or administration, was the most costly part of the process. Due to the fixed nature of costs for test development, smaller states found it particularly difficult to cover these expenses.

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.

No Middle Ground on New Mexico Schools Budget

Oklahoma Amendment Could Mean Tax Hikes

Ohio Slots Ruling Puts Budget Up in the Air

California Community Colleges will Receive Less Stimulus Money than Expected

In early September the Department of Education (ED) released additional guidance that provides details on how states and school districts can use Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) stimulus funds for reform activities. This guidance seeks to ease some of the inherent tension in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) goals of saving jobs and promoting education reform - a tension that likely has slowed the speed with which states and districts have been able to spend funds. However, one piece of the outlined reform efforts can bridge the gap between these two seemingly opposite goals. Specifically, the guidance provides methods for using ARRA IDEA funds to improve teacher effectiveness and distribution that also have important implications for the teacher workforce.

The guidance lays out four potential ways states and school districts might use ARRA IDEA funds to improve teacher effectiveness and distribution: dual certification, induction and mentoring, using technology in instruction, and assistive technology. Each of these methods seeks to dramatically improve the way teachers instruct special education students by providing them with powerful tools or knowledge.

The Federal Education Budget Project (FEBP), Ed Money Watch's parent initiative, provides a wealth of state and school district level data on federal funding, demographics, and achievement through its website www.edbudgetproject.org. These data can tell important stories about how federal education funding interacts with student demographics and achievement. Moreover, the data often reveal rarely-discussed idiosyncrasies in federal funding and education. From time to time, Ed Money Watch will take a close look at one aspect of the data available through FEBP to highlight the value of this information.

This week, we'll take a look at the free and reduced price lunch related data available through the FEBP database. These data reveal important details about student populations in states and school districts and how these details affect federal reimbursement rates. Data include federal funding for school nutrition programs including meals and commodities, the percent of students enrolled in free and reduced price meals, and the percent of students living in poverty.

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.

Virginia Prepares for Cuts to Higher Education Budget

Michigan Budget Deal Would Mean Cuts for Education

Funding Cuts For DC Area Colleges Mean Higher Tuition, Fewer Classes

Massachusetts Lawmakers Seek to Review State Education Funding Formula

Last week we examined the rate at which stimulus funds for different programs have been disbursed by states for spending. Despite encouragement from the Department of Education to spend funds quickly, the majority of education stimulus funds have not yet left the bank. However, this is not the case in all states. While some states are moving quickly to disburse their stimulus funds, others have not, emphasizing the lack of connection between the funds allocated to states and their financial need. Today we will explore the disbursement of stimulus funds at the state level with a close look at activity in two particular states.

As of September 4^th, the Department of Education had obligated (made available for spending) $66.5 billion in stimulus funds to the states. However, states had only disbursed $16.6 billion of those funds for spending at the local level. On average, that's just over 25 percent. While some states have disbursed significantly more than 25 percent of their obligated funds, many states have disbursed far less. The story becomes even more interesting when a state's budget deficit is included in the consideration. While logic would suggest that states with particularly high projected budget deficits would have incentive to spend their stimulus funds more quickly, that is not always the case.