Arne Duncan: Use Stimulus Funds "Smartly"

by Kristina Chew · 2009-04-10 14:09:00 UTC
Topics:

Pie chart of Stimulus Plan funds from http://www.artofteachingscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/edustimulus1.png
Under the President's stimulus plan, $11 billion total in special education aid and Title I aid for disadvantaged students started going to the states on April 1st. The April 7th Education Week reports that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and his staff have said that "states and school districts must use their federal stimulus money smartly or risk losing billions more"---here's what "smartly" means:

• progress on increasing teacher quality and effectiveness
• establishment of data systems linking information from preschool to higher education
• turnarounds of low-performing schools
• creation of better and higher academic standards

Duncan is also holding out another $5 billion in incentive and innovation grants to give to districts at the discretion of his department.

With specific regard to special education students and IDEA, EdWeek provides this breakdown:

• Offer training and dual certification for teachers of English-language learners and students in special education.
• Implement online individualized education programs (IEPs) aligned with state academic standards.
• Hire transition coaches to help graduating high school seniors find employment or get postsecondary training.

The emphasis on teacher training and on transition coaches sounds promising, though---considering the widely varying needs of special education students----it'll be very much of interest as to how these are allocated. Besides a transition coach, my son will need a job coach, or those efforts to transition him to work will not go anywhere.

The stimulus money will end---"disappear," as Education Week puts it----in 2011 and school districts are hampered by this reality in various ways. If they use the funds to hire new special education teachers, they may not be able to keep those teachers after 2011 --- but they would be required to continue to provide an education appropriate to the needs of special education students, but no longer able to do so. So hiring more special education teachers or more staff may not be a likely use of the funds.

Your take on what the stimulus money might do for your education or your child's?

Kristina Chew
PREVIOUS STORY:
Rules and Timing
NEXT STORY:
Why I'm Asking Aetna to Cover My Surgery

COMMENTS (3)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.