Grant Competition Key in the President’s K-12 Education Budget

Race to the Top – type grant competitions look to play an increasingly important role in federal K-12 funding. The President’s education budget released today shows a clear intent from the administration to move a significant portion of federal fiscal effort from formula programs largely driven by the numbers of poor or special needs children and towards competitive grants and evidence-based programs. A good portion of this money, if the President gets his way, will by-pass states altogether and be awarded to districts competing for grants.

Much of the budget proposal depends on not so much a re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently referred to as No Child Left Behind, but a complete makeover. A half dozen discretionary programs would be cut and 38 programs consolidated into 11 funds that utilize grant competition to allocate funding. The 2010 ESEA vision is clear – federal money will be used to leverage local change.

Overall, pre-K-12 spending is slated to rise by over 6%. Two areas in particular get the lion-share of the increase in funding: local and state evidence-based innovation and local and state programs to boost teacher quality in hard-to-staff schools. Both of these increases come in the form of competition-based grants.

Race to the Top will become a permanent feature of federal funding. School districts will now be able to apply for these funds alongside states in order to launch their own innovation and improvement efforts. Supporters of the focus of the work of the Wake Education Partnership, the World Class Public Schools campaign, should take note.

$950 million is slated for a new competitive grant program to support district and states that are exploring new ways to recruit, develop, and retain high quality teachers in low performing schools. Dovetailing with this strategy are companion efforts to fund innovations that re-model how time is used (be it the length of the school day or year – Wake school board, please note – or how teachers use the time they are given), and support services in low-income neighborhoods (using the Harlem Children’s Zone as a template).

Also prominent in the budget released today is a ramp up of program evaluation. All federal education programs look set to go under a more rigorous evaluative microscope to weed out wasted money on education initiatives that fail to produce adequate results. Teachers look set to get examination, too. Federal formula funds will be sent to states contingent on state planning and moving forward a recruitment, development and retention system that actually improves teacher quality and includes a ‘real deal’ teacher evaluation system. How teacher unions and our own NCAE respond will be one to watch.