June 2009 Archives

From guest blogger Lesli A. Maxwell

So, there's less than 12 hours to go before New York City's mayoral control law expires, and the New York Senate remains in utter chaos, with few signs that sanity will prevail fast enough for members to settle on who is in charge of that chamber and to actually hold a vote on anything. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been using some pretty over the top rhetoric in recent days, said in a news conference earlier today that if the law that gave him authority over the city's public schools is allowed to lapse, "the lawyers take over New York City."

All kinds of interest groups are making contingency plans for the midnight death of mayoral control, including Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, who has already selected his appointment for the possible return of the city's Board of Education. A group that opposes mayoral control has promised to stage a celebration of the law's demise that includes a formal "eviction" of Chancellor Joel Klein.

Check out GothamSchools for the full ticktock of all the zaniness.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

If you think Education Secretary Arne Duncan and his staff don't read the comments on their ed.gov blog, then think again.

As part of Duncan's Listening and Learning Tour, which will take him to at least 15 states in town-hall style meetings on education reform, the department has launched an online conversation asking for comments.

A comment about raising academic standards from a high school world history teacher in Princeton, Texas—Kyle Brenner—must have resonated with the education secretary.

Enough so that Mr. Duncan called Brenner today to talk about his post. So if you leave a comment, be prepared to talk about it.

UPDATE: I reached Brenner by email today, and he indicated that he and Duncan spoke for about eight minutes this morning. And here's how the conversation went, according to Brenner:

He asked me my thoughts on raising standards and I told him that the best way to raise standards was to pay teachers more but require them to get a graduate degree similar to the of a lawyer or doctor. He agreed that teacher pay was a big problem and told me that they were working on some programs to reward excellent teachers and lower the debt burden for teachers. He then I asked me if I believed that teacher pay affected young people from joining the profession. I told him that I believed it did. Finally, we talked about student incentives for raising standards. I believe that we should find a way to reward students who excel by offering reduced or free college that way all students know that if they work hard they can go...he responded that they are still studying the situation and looking for a way to give student incentives.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 3:51 PM | Permalink | 4 Comments | Recommend

The clock is ticking toward the July 1 deadline for states to submit their applications for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund—the $48.6 billion pie that's meant to prop up states' K-12 education budgets. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is scheduled to hold a conference call with media tomorrow to talk about this (and some higher ed stuff as well.)

As of today, the Education Department has approved 37 applications (including District of Columbia and Puerto Rico), with seven still pending. So which eight states are dragging their feet, using every last hour of their time?

• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Missouri
• Montana
• Oklahoma
• Texas
• Vermont
• Wyoming

Posted by Michele McNeil at 3:44 PM | Permalink | 4 Comments | Recommend

Another stimulus package could very possibly be Coming Soon to a Congress Near You, at least if Warren Buffett has his way.

Buffett, the gazillionaire investor who has advised President Barack Obama on economic issues, told Bloomberg television that he thinks the country may need a second jolt of federal funding if the unemployment rate keeps rising. In a news conference earlier this week, Obama said Washington should give the $787 billion package, passed in February, a little longer to work before considering a sequel to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

But back when the legislation was under consideration in the House Appropriations Committee, U.S. Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wis., the panel's chairman, floated the possibility of another stimulus.

And school districts are already looking forward to some lean times after the stimulus money, which covers fiscal years 2009 and 2010, goes away.

"Fiscal year 2011 is looking very precarious," said Anthony Bent, the superintendent of the Shrewsbury, Mass., school district.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 12:19 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

The brand-new top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, said this morning that he's not wedded to the idea that states should test their students in reading and math once a year in grades 3-8.

In fact, he thinks that states should get to decide how often to test kids and in what grades. Obviously, that would be a "bombshell" change to the No Child Left Behind Act, since those tests are at the center of its accountability system.

Kline wasn't in Congress when the law was passed, back in 2001. He said he "agrees with the goal, how can you not?" of making sure all kids learn, but said the law takes the wrong tack.

"No Child Left Behind is too large of an intrusion of the federal government. It's telling schools what to do and how to it," he said. In talking to practitioners in his district, "everybody felt like it was a mandate."

Kline thinks that the revamped version of NCLB will probably change the 2013-14 deadline for bringing all kids to proficiency and include much more flexibility for states.

"I believe that there will be less intrusion of the federal government," he said.

Those views shouldn't come as a total surprise, given that Kline (no relation to me) is a co-sponsor of the A-plus Act, introduced by Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., which gives states significant leeway on NCLB's accountability provisions.

But I think it's interesting that Kline got the ranking member job, apparently with the blessing of Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the minority leader and a key author of the NCLB law. Kline's take on federal accountability seems pretty different from Boehner's, at least when he was chairman of the Education committee, and from the last lawmaker to hold the ranking member gig, Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon of Calfiornia.

Unlike some other Republicans (notably former President George W. Bush), Kline doesn't think the federal government belongs in the voucher business. He likes the idea of school choice, and is upset about the end of the D.C. school choice program. But he doesn't think it's the feds' job to go around setting up school choice programs.

I asked Kline if his selection meant that Boehner and the rest of the Republican caucus had changed their minds about the federal role in accountability. He said he "didn't know" whether there is agreement on the specifics, but he said that, broadly, House Republicans agree that NCLB was too big of an intrusion on the states and that the federal role must be dialed back.

That has me wondering if the next version of the law will be bipartisan, at least in the House. Back in 2001, Boehner worked really closely on NCLB with Rep. George Miller, a Democrat from California, who at the time, was in Kline's position as the ranking member of the House Education Committee. (Back then, the GOP controlled the House. Now the Dems are in the majority, and Miller is the committee chairman.)

Given Kline's views, it's tough to see how there will be much room for bipartisanship, at least from the committee leadership. Miller may have better luck working with Rep. Mike Castle, of Delaware, who is mulling a run for Senate, and other moderates on the committee, such as Reps. Todd Platts, of Pennsylvania, and Judy Biggert, of Illinois, if he wants some Republican support for his bill.

Kline acknowledged that he and Miller don't have many views in common.

"George and I are going to differ on most things," he said. But he made it clear that they have a lot of respect for one another.

Still, there's at least one area where Kline thinks the two may find common ground: full or mandatory funding for special education. This is a huge priority for Kline, who thinks it is fundamentally unfair that the federal government mandates certain special education services while not paying its share of the bill. He wants to introduce an amendment some time this year to get that done.

Kline thinks Miller is with him on this one, but he noted that Miller "wants to create a lot of new programs" such as a green-schools program, that could divert resources from special education.

Other tidbits about Kline:

*Kline's a veteran of the Marine Corps, and his office is decorated with a row of fighter planes, but he also had some children's artwork.

*Like McKeon, he's a very congenial guy. And he knows how to charm reporters: He opened the interview with the fact that his father used to be a newspaper man.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

First, Charles Barone at Swift & Change Able reports via Twitter this morning that some members of Congress are "following orders" from supporters of the education "status quo" to stop appearing with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and stop lending support to President Obama's education agenda.

And now, several moderate Senate Democrats have sent a letter in support of Obama's education message.

What's going on?

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

If you're CNN, and you have a choice between broadcasting two live events, would you choose A or B?

A: A live briefing with Education Secretary Arne Duncan about student financial aid forms getting simpler.

B: A live press conference featuring a contrarian Republican governor who went missing for a few days, was eventually thought to be hiking the Appalachian Trail, but was actually in Buenos Aires carrying out an affair with an Argentinian.

Needless to say, Duncan's White House briefing—which CNN was going to carry live—got trumped by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. If you'll remember, Gov. Sanford had some harsh words for Duncan in the kerfluffle over the state stabilization fund. But from now on, it's unlikely Duncan will have to put up with any more snippy letters from Sanford, who has much bigger things to worry about.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

From guest blogger Erik Robelen:

As careful readers of this blog will recall, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today was going to roll out the administration’s plans to simplify the federal college-aid application process during the White House press briefing. He did so this afternoon, and was joined by IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman.

“The debate about how to simplify FAFSA [the Free Application for Federal Student Aid], I think, has been going on for over 20 years. So this change is long, long overdue,”said Mr. Duncan.

Some of the changes are already in place, while others will be phased in over the next few months (and still others will require legislation), according to the Education Department.

In a follow-up chat with several reporters just outside the White House press room, Duncan recalled his own frustrations with the application process when he was superintendent of the Chicago school system. “This damn form was killing us,” he said.

Mr. Duncan also said the Education Department is planning a public campaign this fall to help get more young people interested in college and to let them know about all the help that’s available. He emphasized that the campaign will not only target high school students, but try to reach them earlier, in the 6th and 7th grades.

“The goal will be for our young people to understand that college is a possibility if they work hard,” he said. “I want to get to children at a young enough age before they start to give up on that dream.”

Posted by Erik Robelen at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Education will announce plans to help simplify the process for applying for federal student aid using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

It may not sound like a particularly sexy issue, but a lot of experts think the FAFSA has been a major barrier to student access. In fact, 40 percent of college kids never even file the form, even though most of them are eligible for some form of student aid. (The Chronicle of Higher Education has some excellent background here).

Duncan's plan has three main elements. It would:

1) Rework the online application so that it skips irrelevant questions. For instance, students who are at least 24 or married won't have to provide their parents' financial information, and low-income kids won't be asked about asset information. Part of the plan to rework the online application has already been put in place. Since May, the department has provided students with estimates of their Pell Grant aid student loan eligibility.

2) Eliminate some questions through legislation, possibly including questions relating to assets.

3) Let some students apply for financial aid using IRS information, which would make the process much faster and easier, according to the department. This would start in January, as a pilot program, but could expand in the future.

The issue of FAFSA simplification isn't new. The most recent version of the Higher Education Act called for a slimmed-down form. And Duncan's predecessor, Margaret Spellings, unveiled an online tool to help students figure out how much federal aid they are eligible for.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The White House Office of Management and Budget last night released guidance for states on how to calculate the impact of stimulus dollars, including how recovery dollars are being spent and how many jobs have been saved. You can read the guidance for yourself here.

One state official I talked to said she finds the guidance confusing, as least as it applies to education.

Betsy Carpentier, deputy superintendent of innovation and support in South Carolina, called the reporting requirements confusing and "pie in the sky". One of her chief complaints? The OMB doesn't explain how to calculate jobs saved that aren't year-round (such as many teaching positions). She's hoping the Council of Chief State School Officers will help states figure out how to work with the requirements.

Tom Gavin, an OMB spokesman, said the guidance was developed with input from state officials and includes a formula for less-than-12-month employees. He also said OMB will hold a series of town hall meetings and engage in other outreach efforts to help state officials better understand the guidance.

One thing I noticed: The guidance doesn't include reporting requirements on student outcomes. Gavin said that the guidance is too broad-based for that, since it covers stimulus money from a range of agencies.

"It's not just education guidance," he said. It applies to programs "that are disparate in mission, you couldn't come up with a metric that would cover watersheds and students."

Posted by Alyson Klein at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

It's the end of an era at 400 Maryland Ave. The little red No Child Left Behind schoolhouse out in front of the U.S. Department of Education's headquarters in the nation's capital is no more.

It's no secret that folks in the administration and Congress are very likely to change the name of the federal school improvement law. A key author of the legislation, U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, has called it "the most tainted brand in America." And U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told Michele awhile back that he might seek suggestions for a new name for the law from America's schoolchildren.

I guess the schoolhouse was necessary collateral damage. The Education Department had it dismantled over the weekend.

Awhile back, the Eduwonk blog held a contest to rename NCLB. So, in that spirit, Politics K-12 is taking any and all suggestions of what the Education Department could put on its front terrace to symbolize that it's a new era in education policy under President Barack Obama and Duncan. The comments section is ready and waiting.

UPDATE: The U.S. Department of Education just announced today that it will decorate its halls with "larger than life" photos of kids from all around the country participating in the arts and athletics, as well as reading and in classrooms. Sounds to me like the department might be trying to send a message that the federal government cares about more than just the reading and math tests that are central to NCLB. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 12:27 PM | Permalink | 4 Comments | Recommend

From guest blogger Lesli Maxwell:

A few hours after U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called on the 3,300 charter school leaders gathered in Washington for their annual conference to help transform the nation’s 5,000 lowest-performing schools, Steve Barr, the founder of the Los Angeles-based Green Dot Public Schools shared a little about what role his charter management organization might play in that challenge.

Barr, who is in town for the conference, said he is talking with Chancellor Michelle Rhee about bringing his model for small high schools to the District of Columbia. He kept the details mum, but said a few D.C. high schools could undergo an overhaul similar to the one that Green Dot brought over the past school year to Locke High School, an enormous, long-suffering school in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. He hopes to visit some of the potential schools in the coming weeks. The goal, he said, would be to “create a model that Arne could use,” as an example for how to turn around the nation’s worst high schools, and one that, very strategically, would be in Congress’ back yard.

Posted by at 4:30 PM | Permalink | 5 Comments | Recommend

From guest blogger Dakarai I. Aarons:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan this morning asked charter school operators to play a major role in turning around the nation's lowest-performing schools.

"Today, I am challenging you to adapt your educational model to turning around our lowest-performing schools. I need you to go outside your comfort zones and go to under-served rural communities and small cities," he said to the attendees of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools' ninth annual conference, which kicked off this morning at Washington's convention center.

While Duncan praised charters, he said the charter school movement has real work to do on improving accountability for its schools, calling out states with laws he said provide "minimal" accountability, such as those in Arizona, Florida, Ohio, and Texas. He also cited a new report by Stanford University researchers that found a wide range of quality among charters.

"The charter movement is putting itself at risk by allowing too many second-rate, and in some cases, third-rate charter schools to exist. Your goal should be quality, not quantity."

Duncan's speech was the third of four speeches he is doing on the "assurances" that states must make to get a significant share of education stimulus dollars. Duncan has pushed states to lift caps on charter schools, or find themselves in a weakened competitive spot for the funds.

He broadly outlined four options for turning around failing schools, which the department will give more details on in a request for proposals for those applying to use Race to the Top funds to turn around schools.

In the first model, the students remain in the school, but at least 50 percent of the staff is replaced, which may become a grant requirement. The teachers can reapply for their jobs and many will go elsewhere. It's based on the work done in Chicago under the Academy for Urban School Leadership.

The second model calls for replacing the staff and turning the school over to a nonprofit group or charter management organization, such as Los Angeles-based Green Dot or the Mastery charter schools network, which the secretary highlighted for its work in Philadelphia.

A majority of the existing staff would stay under the third model, which the secretary said would be most suited for rural districts or small communities where finding new staff members would be especially difficult. But the district would have to commit to a "rigorous" performance evaluation and intensive training and mentoring of the staff, along with a focus on more time for children to learn later in the day and on weekends. The school should be given flexibility over its calendar.

That option should not be considered the easy way out, he said, as the schools will be required to show measurable improvement in student achievement.

The fourth option is simply to shut down the lowest-performing schools and send the children to another school. "This might seem like surrender, but in some cases it’s the only responsible option," Duncan said.

All of the models, Duncan said, require about a year of planning, so districts and charter management organizations should get started this summer in order to have these schools opening in the fall of 2010. He said schools and districts can use Title I money to start that process now.

Duncan said he knows turning around schools is different than the work most charters presently do, but he said students need their innovative approaches to help close some of the nation's most persistent achievement gaps.

There's more to come, so check this blog and our Twitter feed for the latest news from the charter school conference.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 10:29 AM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend

From guest blogger Dakarai I. Aarons

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is bringing its 9th annual conference to town next week, and your intrepid Education Week reporters Dakarai I. Aarons and Lesli A. Maxwell will be on the scene to bring you the latest news from the conference, so be sure to follow along on this blog and @educationweek on Twitter for updates from the conference.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan will kick off the conference on Monday with a speech about the need to turn around low-performing schools, a subject he recently discussed in an EdWeek commentary. It's the third of four speeches he is doing on the assurances" that states must make to get a significant share of education stimulus dollars. Duncan has pushed states to lift caps on charter schools, or find themselves in a weakened competitive spot for the funds.

The conference comes on the release of a study this week that found mixed results for the nation's charter schools.

Among the other famous-in-education faces at the conference are D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, NYC schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and Steve Barr, founder of the Los Angeles-based Green Dot Charter Schools. He recently appeared before a House committee to tout the successes of his schools, which are being considered a possible model for turning around low performing schools.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 6:17 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

It's going to be story-hour at 400 Maryland Ave. - all summer long.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is planning to read to kids on the lawn of the U.S. Department of Education on a regular basis throughout the summer. (Suggest your favorite children's classics in the comments section).

He may even be joined by other cabinet secretaries from time to time.

The program is part of the White House's Summer of Service initiative, "United We Serve" which kicks off on Monday, and runs through Sept. 11. Duncan's cabinet colleagues are getting in on the act too. For instance, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood will be helping build homes with Habitat for Humanity in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Duncan's first stop on the reading tour will actually be Fanwood Memorial Library in Fanwood, N.J. On Monday, he'll be reading to students in kindergarten through third grade and meeting with representatives of the New Jersey Regional Libraries. He'll be reading Wide Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner and possibly How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague.

The project is meant to highlight the importance of reading in stemming the summer slip-off. Research shows that if kids read just five books over the summer, they might be able to prevent the decline in reading achievement scores that often occurs over the vacation months, according to a statement from the Department.

Photo by Christopher Powers for Education Week.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 12:28 PM | Permalink | 15 Comments | Recommend

The AP's Libby Quaid has an interesting story about how Education Secretary Arne Duncan has put in writing a threat we've heard before: that if states play shell games with the economic-stimulus money intended to help stabilize their budgets, they may be at a competitive disadvantage when it comes time to award the $5 billion in competitive stimulus grants under his control. Pennsylvania is considering cutting K-12 education, using stimulus money to fill in the resulting gap, while leaving its "rainy day" fund largely intact. Read Duncan's letter here. And listen to him talk about the larger issue in this interview with EdWeek from March.

But Duncan's threat to Pennsylvania policymakers may turn out to be an empty one. Here's why:

Does Duncan—who readily admits in his stump speeches that Washington does not have all of the answers—know better than the budget experts in individual states? Sometimes, depleting a rainy day fund is a bad idea. For example, bond-rating agencies look at a state's savings in awarding bond ratings--a healthy rainy day fund usually means a better bond rating. A higher bond rating lowers borrowing costs for states, which can save money for other things.

Second, a lot of states are talking about or doing what Pennsylvania is talking about doing. Texas is another notable example. Applications approved so far show most states are using their State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money to backfill cuts. And if you look at the latest fiscal report from the associations representing the nation's governors and state budget officers (advance to page 52 of the PDF), you'll see that many states are projecting that they'll end fiscal 2010 with money still in their "budget stabilization" or rainy day funds. Many of these same states have cut K-12 education. That's a lot of states to potentially take out of the running. Will Duncan and Team Stimulus be able to distinguish which states really, really needed to cut education versus those that didn't?

Note in Duncan's letter that states will be asked about (and not necessarily judged on) how they used their stabilization fund money. And, he says a state may be "negatively impacted" by such decisions. What's more, it's important to remember that the stimulus law, as approved by Congress, contains loopholes that allow states to move money around—and potentially away from—intended purposes.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 3:04 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend

Texas Democrats are fighting what's perhaps a noble, albeit losing, battle over State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money that's designed to help prop up states' K-12 education budgets.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and fellow Republicans have figured out, like a lot of other states, that even if you don't really need to cut education, you can cut K-12 anyway and fill the cuts with federal stimulus money, thereby freeing up money for other government programs that would have been spent on education.

In one case, Democrats fought a valiant and creative fight as members of the Texas congressional delegation threatened to withhold their votes on a war-spending bill if Congress didn't amend the law to stop Texas' planned use of education-stimulus dollars. But that maneuver was ultimately unsuccessful.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Rep. John Kline of Minnesota is the new top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee.

Kline wasn't in Congress back in 2001, when lawmakers approved the No Child Left Behind Act, so it's unclear whether he would have supported the legislation.

But, unlike Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon of California, who held the ranking member position until he became the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, Kline is a co-sponsor of this bill, put forth by Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan. Commonly called the A-plus Act, the legislation would allow states to "opt-out" of NCLB's accountability requirements. That could be a sign Kline will be more conservative than his predecessor.

From a quick glance at congressional records, it looks like Kline hasn't introduced any education bills yet this year. He seems like more of a labor guy.

On his Web site Kline says he has "been a strong advocate for greater flexibility and local control in education, and increased federal funding for special needs and low-income students. He has authored legislation to increase the availability of federal education funding at the local level, for which he was honored with the “Star of Education” Award by the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

AFT President Randi Weingarten has written about the need for national academic standards and testified about it on Capitol Hill.

But, in a wide-ranging interview with Edweek reporters yesterday, she was less than enthusiastic about Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's proposal to use a portion of the Race to the Top fund to help states develop more uniform, rigorous assessments.

I asked her if she supported the idea, and she said the "short answer is yes" but that the "devil is in the details", a Washington response if there ever was one.

Weingarten isn't known for her brevity, particularly in responding to reporters, so I asked her to elaborate. She said that if there are going to be new standards, teachers should be trained to implement them. Her answer sounded very similar to what The American Prospect's Dana Goldstein wrote in this post. But Weingarten's response centered mainly around the common standards, not the specific testing piece.

I guess the AFT is being careful about how it discusses the proposal until it sees more from the Education Department.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

To counter President Obama's 100 stimulus success stories, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma, has come out with his own Top 100 list—of wasteful or questionable spending.

School districts and school-related projects are not spared scrutiny, either. What education-related projects made his hit-list?

* Detroit Public Schools, getting some $530 million in stimulus funding despite a severe budget and financial mismanagement crisis. To be fair, much of the stimulus money is being doled out by existing education formulas (such as through Title I), or by new formulas (such as for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund) that Congress itself created. This one is marked No. 28 in the report.

* $10 million to be used for school lunch equipment and education technology in Oshkosh, Wisc. That's No. 35. What the report doesn't say is that Congress actually approved a $100 million line-item just for school lunch equipment. Are school districts supposed to let that money go to waste?

*$550,000 for a new skate park and tennis court and basketball renovations for Jenks Junior High School in Rhode Island. This one probably comes closest to violating Vice President Joe Biden's commandment that thou shalt not build any swimming pools with stimulus money.

* California, for not encouraging school districts to rehire employees. While this may go against the main mission of the stimulus—to save jobs and jump-start the economy—hasn't Sen. Coburn heard of the funding cliff? Even the U.S. Department of Education is warning districts against falling off that cliff. This is No. 81 in the report.

*$215,000 for new bike paths in Durango, Colo. to keep kids who walk to school from walking along the street. This is No. 98.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 12:15 PM | Permalink | 4 Comments | Recommend

In response to new research that casts doubt on the quality of charter schools, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weigarten had this to say, in an official statement:

"...the inconsistencies in the quality of charter schools should give pause to those who want to lift charter caps, particularly when they are not matched with calls for legislatures to increase accountability."

Hmmmm...I wonder who she could be talking about?

Posted by Michele McNeil at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The U.S. Department of Education has now laid out very specific deadlines for states vying for a piece of the Race to the Top fund, a pool of discretionary economic-stimulus money that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will get to dole out to the states. Billed as a "national competition," the grants will be distributed in two rounds—to give states that miss out the first time around a crack at the second phase.

Applications will be due in December and June. So states that have charter school caps, for instance, have a year (as Duncan might say) to get their act together and lift those caps!

It looks like these deadlines will apply only to the $4 billion in state grants, not to the $350 million that's been set aside for new assessments, nor for the $650 million in innovation grants available to school districts and nonprofit groups.

The deadlines are:

Late July: The Department will publish a notice of proposed rule making in the Federal Register, inviting public comment for 30 days on the proposed grant application and the criteria for evaluating the states' applications.

October: Notice inviting applications will be published in the Federal Register.

December: Phase 1 applications will be due.

March 2010: Phase 1 grants awarded, winners announced.

June 2010: Phase 2 applications will be due.

September 2010: Phase 2 grants awarded, winners announced.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:18 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

The U.S. Department of Education will use a portion of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund to help states work on developing assessments, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told governors in North Carolina tonight. They were gathered for an education symposium sponsored by the National Governors Association and the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy.

The details are still being worked out, but he said $350 million of the $4.35 billion in Race to the Top money set aside for states will go to the project. (The $650 million in innovation grants will still go to local districts and nonprofits.) And it sounds like Duncan is hoping that at least some states will work together on creating the tests.

Really good tests will cost more than the fill-in-the-bubble variety, Duncan told the governors, and it'll be too much money for any one state to do on its own. So the feds are going to put up part of the funding and Duncan is hoping that states will choose to collaborate with one another.

But, in prepared remarks, he stressed that the feds won't be the ones driving the bus:

Some people may claim that a commonly-created test is a threat to state control – but let’s remember who is in charge. You are. You will create these tests. You will drive the process. You will call the shots.

And he said he wants states to also work together on so-called formative assessments, which help teachers gauge where their kids are:

This is a growth area for the testing industry, which may worry that assessments used across multiple states will be bad for business, even if it’s the right thing for kids.
However, it’s not my job to worry about their business. My job is to worry about kids...

The $350 million for assessments means that Race to the Top state grant funding is now down to $4 billion. States can either collaborate with one another or apply on their own for the grants, Duncan said. And he reiterated that the funding will be doled out in two rounds. States that lose out the first time are eligible for Round 2.

Duncan also said he wants to rewrite the No Child Left Behind Act to make sure that it rewards states for raising their standards. These lines, included tonight, have become part of his NCLB stump speech.

As states come together around higher common standards, I want to flip it – and be tighter about the goals – but more flexible in how you can meet them. I trust states and districts to find the way – and I don’t trust Washington to tell you how to do it. You have the ideas, the leadership, and the ability. I’m here to support you.

And, as he has before, Duncan gave a big pat on the back to the 46 states that have pledged to consider common standards.

So let’s be clear: this effort is being led by governors and chief state schools officers. This is your work and this is your agenda. Federal law does not mandate national standards. It empowers states to decide what kids need to learn and how to measure it.

In case you haven't already noticed, the whole Washington-Isn't-On-Your-Back thing was a major theme of the speech. But Duncan may have stepped on that a little bit when he repeated his call for states to, pretty please, lift their charter cap.

As you might remember, Duncan is doing a round of speeches on each of the four "assurances" spelled out in the stimulus package - the ones that states must promise they'll improve on to get a major piece of the stimulus funding. This one was obviously standards and assessments. He's already done data systems.

Duncan also gave us a preview of the two final stops in the Assurances Tour:

He'll be talking about turning around low performing schools—another assurance—at an event with charter school advocates next week. Interesting pick of audience there...might indicate that he is going to push for more continually failing schools to be reconstituted as charters.

And Duncan said that he will be outlining his vision for teacher and principal quality in a speech to the National Education Association in July, a gutsy move considering that the speech will more likely than not mention performance pay, a policy the union isn't a huge fan of.

UPDATE: The Associated Press did a good story on the speech that you can read here. In an interview with AP, Duncan explained that providing resources for the tests is a good way to keep the standards movement going. Establishing standards will be relatively cheap, Duncan told AP.

But tests will be a "very heavy lift financially," Duncan said. "Having real high standards is important, but behind that, I think in this country we have too many bad tests... If we're going to have world-class international standards, we need to have world-class evaluations behind them."

Posted by Alyson Klein at 10:25 PM | Permalink | 3 Comments | Recommend

Not content with prodding California to tear down its data fire wall, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is apparently throwing his weight around the fight over whether, and how, to continue mayoral control of New York City's schools.

And, over at Flypaper, Mike Petrilli takes the temperature of Duncan's tenure so far: It's a "warm" on the blog's trademark Reform-o-meter. Which, sadly, won't be a regular feature anymore, Mike says.

At Swift & Change Able, Charlie Barone has an interesting update on the implementation of growth models and No Child Left Behind. And if you were wondering why there hasn't been more talk of NCLB renewal lately, it's because this and this are sucking up most of the oxygen.

ProPublica has a good take on how the stimulus will help (or not so much) schools in South Carolina and elsewhere.

And, for your feel-good moment-of-the-day, check out Curriculum Matters. (An excuse note from President Barack Obama is probably a lot better than "the dog ate my homework.") At This Week in Education, Russo has video.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

One of Arne Duncan's key leadership picks has ignited the conservative blogsphere: Kevin Jennings, the U.S. Department of Education's soon-to-be assistant deputy secretary in the office of safe and drug-free schools.

The former Massachusetts Department of Education official founded, and was the executive director of, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network. GLSEN works to make schools safe for students regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. This is a real issue, as the latest GLSEN survey from October showed that 86 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students experienced harassment during the previous school year.

This isn't the first time the Obama administration has signaled its commitment to raising awareness about keeping schools safe, including for gay, lesbian, and transgender youth. Jill Biden, a community college professor and the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, gave the keynote address at GLSEN's annual awards banquet last week. In April, as part of a broader statement on school safety, Duncan called attention to the importance of protecting students from bullying and harassment because of sexual orientation.

But the Jennings pick—which does not require Senate confirmation—is lighting up Twitter and drawing fire from conservative groups, including Catholic Online, and the legislative arm of the Family Research Council, which is urging folks to write the department opposing the choice. Specifically, the group says that GLSEN "force[s] affirmation of homosexuality in schools, beginning in kindergarten." What's up with certain conservatives linking sex and kindergarten? (Think back to that 2008 campaign ad that purported that Barack Obama supported sex-ed for kindergartners.)

Posted by Michele McNeil at 9:37 AM | Permalink | 4 Comments | Recommend

As we mentioned yesterday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is talking tough about the need for state data systems to include some sort of indicator that can be used to tie teachers to their students' performance.

Who knows whether it will happen in California, Duncan's new poster child for the issue. But the situation in Arizona may be promising for proponents of the idea, at least according to the state schools chief, Tom Horne.

I asked Horne last week (while reporting this story) whether he thought the state would actually be able to squeeze some reform out of the stimulus money, given Arizona's dire fiscal situation.

He said he thought that the law gave him leverage to add a teacher indicator to the state's data system, and the cost won't be high. According to Horne, the proposal has been languishing in the state legislature for a while. Now “schools are going to have to do it,” he said. "That’s going to be a big change” because principals can use the data to better target professional development, Horn said.

If it happens, don't be surprised if Duncan gives Arizona a little love in his data-system stump speech.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has added more tough talk to his stump speech.

Just yesterday, he urged states to strike down laws that prohibit them from using data systems to link individual teachers to student outcomes.

Today he hit that theme again, singling out California's law, which he said makes it impossible to figure out which of the state's educators and practices are effective.

At a breakfast with reporters in Washington, he called the Golden State law a "fire wall. ... This thing is a huge, huge barrier. ... We've got to tear down this fire wall."

Not being able to link student and teacher data, Duncan said, makes it tough to pinpoint which of California's educators are the top performers and which "should find another line of work."

And about half an hour later, he used very similar language to, yet again, rail against California's law at an event surrounding the release of a Carnegie report on math and science education. My colleague Sean Cavanagh already has blogged about this over at Curriculum Matters.

(If you're looking for some good background, my colleague, Steve Sawchuk of Teacher Beat fame, sketched out the political dynamics around the data system issue in this story.)

My guess is that the first thing California has to do if it wants a piece of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund is scrap that data law. It sounds like the state could sure use the money. And, California Democrat and Education Committee Chairman Rep. George Miller is with Duncan on this one.

Other odds and ends from the events:

*After giving a speech at Carnegie, Duncan said he will consider ways to urge districts to make science an important part of the school day. He's worried about how the subject fits into the "narrowing of curriculum" issue.

*At the reporters' breakfast, Duncan mentioned that, in his "listening tour" on the No Child Left Behind Act, he's heard teachers, particularly young teachers, complain about the quality of the training they've received at their colleges of education.

*Also, at the reporters' round table, Duncan answered the million-dollar question: Yes, he's played basketball with President Barack Obama since the new administration has come into office. And no, he won't tell us where they've played.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 2:16 PM | Permalink | 4 Comments | Recommend

In case you were wondering whether that $25 million or so that the Gates and Broad Foundations invested in ED in '08 paid off, Strong American Schools, which managed the program, is here to tell you that the campaign "has helped turn the need for education reform from a low-priority campaign issue into one of the Obama administration's top policy priorities."

Take that Mr. Mouthing Platitudes!

You can read all about it in a new report on the effort, released today. ED in '08's biggest road block, according to the report? Teachers' unions. And also the media.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Inside Baseball Alert: Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., is going to be the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, replacing Rep. John McHugh of New York, who is going to work in the Obama administration.

That means McKeon won't be the ranking member on the House Education and Labor Committee anymore, because lawmakers typically don't hold that slot on two different committees. (For more on McKeon, check out this interview at the GOP convention.)

Republicans will get to choose a replacement for McKeon, and the pick could have major implications for No Child Left Behind Act reauthorization in the House. If they pick someone who really doesn't like the expanded role for the federal government in the law, which many Republicans don't, it may be much tougher to put together a bipartisan reauthorization.

A couple of things to keep in mind. Lawmakers often, but not always, go by seniority in picking chairman and ranking members. And Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Minority Leader and a key author of the NCLB law, will have a major role in picking McKeon's successor. My guess is that it's unlikely he'd want to back someone who has very different views on education than his own.

But Republicans are divided on education issues.

First up in seniority is Rep. Thomas E. Petri of Wisconsin, a moderate who has bucked his party on student lending and other issues.

And then there's Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, a conservative and most famous for this bill. If he took the slot, it would make for a really interesting contrast with Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the panel. But Hoekstra is leaving to run for governor of the Wolverine State after this Congress, so he wouldn't be in the role for long and may not be interested.

Next is Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware, a moderate former governor who is very engaged on education issues and good at working across the aisle. Castle has his own NCLB bill, summarized here. But, as with Hoekstra, it's unclear whether he'd keep the slot for long. There are rumors that he may run for Senate after this Congress, or even retire.

After Castle comes Rep. Mark E. Souder of Indiana, who tends to be pretty conservative on education issues. For instance, he went off on the common standards movement during this hearing, the only crack in the bipartisan love-fest for CCSSO and NGA's effort.

Of course, it could always be someone else...

UPDATE: Souder is definitely interested in the job.

UPDATE 2: Add Reps. Joe Wilson of South Carolina and John Kline of Minnesota to the list, according to this story.

UPDATE 3: Kline is a top contender, according to the always-informative Charlie Barone, and news reports from the Hill.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The Education Department gets a "most improved" from Politics K-12 for finally putting the initial applications for state fiscal stabilization funding online—and living up to the transparency standards President Obama has set for spending stimulus money.

I've been making the case for this for weeks now (here and here), and other folks have joined in a call for more transparency as well. (UPDATE: To clarify, the Education Department has always posted online the final applications once they were approved, but at issue were the initial applications states submitted—before any changes were made.)

This is more than just a philosophical debate. It's important that the public be able to see what a state initially promises to do with its stimulus money, and what it ends up promising to do after any negotiations with the Education Department. What will be interesting to see, as well, is if the Education Department posts these initial applications as soon as they arrive, so the public has a chance to weigh in before the Education Department approves them. About 20 states have yet to submit their applications, and there's less than a month before the July 1 application deadline. (JUNE 11 UPDATE: ED has indeed started posting initial applications, before they're approved, online.)

Many more decisions on transparency will likely vex the Education Department. To name just one: Will officials make public and put online all of the applications for Race to the Top funding, once that process gets started, or just those that win the competitive grants?

Posted by Michele McNeil at 1:24 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend

So, now that the original Reading First program is officially dead, Congress and the administration are scrambling to create a new program that would retain the federal government's investment in literacy, without all the unfortunate conflict-of-interest issues and effectiveness questions.

It's up for debate whether there is a consensus out in Literacy Land as to how best to teach reading. But lawmakers are starting to put together reading legislation. My colleague, Kathleen Kennedy Manzo told you about a bill being crafted by the Senate. But over in the House, lawmakers are also working on the issue.

Freshman Rep. Jared Polis, D-Col., (who has an extensive background in education and is writing about his first term in Congress for CNN) is putting together a bill with Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., and Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky.

A Polis aide described the bill at a briefing yesterday organized by the National Association of State Boards of Education, which recently put out its own report on adolescent literacy.

The House proposal, which hasn't yet been introduced as an actual bill, would be authorized at $2.5 billion. It would dole out funding through formula grants to states, which would then make them available competitively through districts. States would also have to review the pre-service coursework of teachers to make sure they are getting the kind of training in literacy pedagogy they need.

The proposal is meant to be comprehensive, and a portion of the funding would go to services for ages zero to five and grades K-3. The largest share would go to grades 4-12.

President Obama included a $300 million literacy initiative in his budget, but was short on details. Although most folks think that Congress will wait until No Child Left Behind Act reauthorization to pass something on literacy, a reading program with a clear authorization (directions from Congress) probably has the best chance of getting funded.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 11:32 AM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend

The White House promised today that the economic stimulus package will create or save 600,000 jobs nationally over the next 100 days.

And 135,000 of those jobs are education jobs, the Obama administration claims. You can see a state-by-state breakdown in this White House PowerPoint presentation, on slide 5.

So how did the U.S. Department of Education come up with that 135,000-job estimate?

According to the Education Department, officials added together all of the Title I, IDEA and state fiscal stabilization fund money each state is going to get. Then, they multiplied that amount by 68.3 percent — or historically, according to the department, the percentage of state school funding that goes to school personnel. Then, they took the national-average teacher salary (plus benefits) of $69,000 to figure out how many jobs that translated into.

This seems like a very simplistic way of figuring out how many jobs the stimulus is saving or creating. But trying to answer that question also seems like an impossible task. What do you think of the math behind the numbers?

Posted by Michele McNeil at 5:42 PM | Permalink | 4 Comments | Recommend

From guest blogger Lesli A. Maxwell:

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is keeping up his high-profile pressure campaign on states he deems unfriendly to charter schools.

This afternoon, in a conference call with education reporters (and some charter school groups), he explained once again that states that don't allow charters to open and those that impose caps on the number of schools will be at a "competitive disadvantage" when he starts to dole out $4.35 billion in Race to the Top discretionary grant dollars later this year.

He wasn't willing, however, to be terribly specific about how much weight he'll assign to states' charter friendliness. Only that "we’re going to have an absolutely simple, and transparent application process," with "a clear series of questions and clear points assigned."

He did say that those states still at work on improving their stance toward charters could have a crack at Race to the Top money next year because he'll award grants in two rounds: the first with an application deadline of Dec. 1 of this year, and the second likely next spring.

So for states like Maine, where charter schools so far have lost their battle to open, and Tennessee, where restrictive enrollment policies and a 50-school cap are in place, there are a few extra months to improve their standing with Secretary Duncan.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican who has been told by his state Supreme Court to submit an application for the stimulus program's state fiscal stabilization fund, has finally done so. The cover letter alone is worth a read. Here are some highlights:

On the stimulus in general: "A monumentally terrible idea..."

On submitting this application: "I''m signing these documents under duress..."

Perhaps his most compelling point (although still a great, quotable line) is on whether governors can really be held accountable for the stimulus program's "assurances": "In reviewing this application, for me it again highlighted the absurdity of ramrodding federal dollars into the states when I suspect more governors than myself have little ability or wherewithal to say with certainty that these and other conditions under the law can, or will be, carried out. In this case it makes something of a mockery of the law itself..."

Posted by Michele McNeil at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In the first in a planned series of four speeches about the Education Department's top reform priorities, Secretary Arne Duncan told education researchers today that innovation and new practices must be supported by evidence-based research. And, what's more, he took states to task for enacting laws barring student test scores from being used in teacher-evaluation decisions.

Debbie Viadero, who covers and blogs about research for EdWeek, called in to say that Duncan, in particular, singled out New York and California for having such state laws.

But the problem goes deeper than those two states. According to the latest update from the Data Quality Campaign, 17 states have no plans to create a unique teacher-identifier number and link that number to student achievement data. My colleague Stephen Sawchuk, who blogs over at the Teacher Beat, has explored this issue in depth.

In his speech to the Institute for Education Sciences, Duncan urged researchers to work on improving accountability models based on student achievement growth on test scores and developing fair models of compensating teachers and other school staff based on the achievement of their students. Ultimately, he added, the data should be used to ensure that students are on track to graduate and to succeed in college, according to an Education Department press release.

Duncan's planned series of speeches is built around the four "assurances" that are included in the federal economic stimulus law. The assurances say that states must make progress in turning around low-performing schools, building better longitudinal data systems, recruiting and retaining effective teachers, and implementing more rigorous college- and career-ready standards. States must show such progress, or a plan for progress, to get their share of the $48.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. In addition, Duncan has said he will use a state's progress on the assurances to help him make decisions on who gets the billions of dollars in Race to the Top funding under his control.

This isn't the first time Duncan's put a little bully in his bully pulpit. He's put states on notice that charter school caps that limit the growth of these nontraditional public schools are not his idea of innovation or reform.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 12:04 PM | Permalink | 3 Comments | Recommend

The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday, in grand fashion, (meaning not just through a press release, but a site visit as well), that it was granting New Jersey's application for state fiscal stabilization funds. This comes despite the protests of advocacy groups, which have numerous problems with the application itself, and the education department's whole stimulus process. Apparently, their arguments didn't work.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Now that 46 states, plus three other U.S. jurisdictions, have committed to forging ahead with common academic standards, is the reaction all rosy?

Not necessarily. In the blogsphere, anyway, it's easy to find a healthy dose of skepticism and realism.

ASCD's InService blog reminds us that all 50 states pledged a similar thing a few years ago, when they decided to adopt a common graduation rate. Well, that hasn't panned out exactly like it was supposed to.

Eduflack previews fights to come by providing us this letter from California. The state, which was apparently one of the last-minute holdouts to the standards effort, would not agree to the requirement in the memorandum of agreement that 85 percent of the standards reflect the common core. And, they want to make sure they get their own picks on the "validation" committee that will provide an independent check on the standards.

The Core Knowledge blog warns that after all is said and done, the result could be "replacing 46 sets of squishy, nonspecific standards with one set of squishy, nonspecific standards."

Posted by Michele McNeil at 10:35 AM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend

From contributing blogger Erik Robelen:

It’s official. South Carolina can now get a boatload of federal aid, some $700 million, largely designated for education under the economic-stimulus law. The state Supreme Court today ruled unanimously that Republican Gov. Mark Sanford must apply for the money.

The court found that the state’s General Assembly had authority in passing its state budget plan, which assumed use of money from the state fiscal-stabilization fund, to order the governor to formally seek the money. The governor had contended that he had the sole authority to request the federal aid. He said earlier this month that he would not appeal the ruling.

Sanford, who is thought to be mulling a run for president in 2012, has attracted national attention with his criticism of the stimulus package. He insisted that he would forgo the state fiscal-stabilization money unless it could be used to pay down state debt, a request the White House flatly rejected.

“While we recognize and respect Governor Sanford’s sincerely held beliefs concerning the [federal-stimulus law], those convictions do not alter the ministerial nature of the legal duty now before him,” the court said in its opinion.

“What I’m hearing today is a big sigh of relief from local school districts,” South Carolina's Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said in a statement. “This ruling—and the governor’s pledge not to appeal it—gives them assurances that federal help is coming.”

Posted by Michele McNeil at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

From guest blogger Lesli Maxwell:

With President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan talking so much about charter schools as a key part of their strategy to remake some of the nation's worst public schools, it was just a matter of time before charter founders and advocates would be summoned to Capitol Hill to tell their success stories. A half-dozen of them appeared today before the House Committee on Education and Labor to do just that.

There was all the usual chatter about the importance of small, personalized learning environments, accountability, and the dire need for a deeper bench of strong principals and excellent teachers.

So it may have surprised some of the committee members to hear Steve Barr, the brash founder of the Los Angeles-based Green Dot Public Schools, who was recently profiled in the New Yorker, offer up some of his more unconventional notions about how the federal government could help.

"Make private schools illegal and it will scale really fast," said Barr, who can't resist being a provocateur and is one of the more colorful schools pitchmen you'll encounter.

He suggested other more realistic, but still politically difficult, ideas, too. One, which his schools have done from the beginning, is collaboration with teachers unions. Another, he said, is that the feds could help encourage states to designate someone other than a state schools chief (a governor or mayor, perhaps) to step into a school district that hasn't taken action to turn around chronically failing schools. No doubt that idea comes from Barr's years-long battles with the Los Angeles Unified School District over some of its gigantic, low-performing high schools.

Keep your eyes on Barr, who has been in discussions with Secretary Duncan about expanding Green Dot's high schools to other large cities as part of the Obama administration's strategy for turning around failing urban campuses, much as Green Dot is attempting to do at Locke High School in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.

When I first wrote about Barr three years ago, he said he had no interest in taking Green Dot outside of Los Angeles. Last fall, however, he opened a new charter school in the Bronx, in partnership with New York City's teacher's union. Now, he says he's going to "spend the summer" thinking about whether he'd want to become the administration's go-to guy on high school turnarounds and turn Green Dot into a national organization.

"It's Obama," Barr said after the hearing. "He's the reason I am even considering this."

Posted by Alyson Klein at 4:16 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

As part of the Obama administration's larger effort to help communities affected by the near-collapse of the U.S. auto industry, Education Secretary Arne Duncan is doing his part.

He announced today in Milwaukee a new competitive grant program to help develop more community college programs to help people, especially those hurt by the auto industry's decline. Don't expect this new program to have a big impact though—the total funding is only $7 million. Grants are likely to range from $300,000 to $700,000. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the some $100 billion in education money in the stimulus package.

The education department's press release points out that many of the high-demand jobs in 2009 are within reach of a community college graduate. Just what are these in-demand jobs? According to Manpower, the 10 hardest jobs for U.S. employers to fill in 2009 are: engineers, nurses, skilled/manual trades, teachers, sales representatives, technicians, drivers, information technology, laborers, and machinists.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 12:33 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

After getting an earful on some of his budget proposals from the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees education spending this morning, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan listened to similar complaints this afternoon from Democrats on the House Appropriations subcommittee that deals with school spending.

“I’m concerned, quite frankly, about the direction some of your budget decisions would take us,” said Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc., the chairman of the subcommittee. “You propose a large increase for the Teacher Incentive Fund … even though the department has yet to complete any rigorous evaluation effort [of the program], which began four years ago.”

Like Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations panel where Duncan testified this morning, Obey threw cold water on the administration’s proposal to shift $1 billion to the Title I school improvement program from the Title I grants to districts program.

Obey said that proposal would “put additional strain on Title I” and force districts to use their economic stimulus funding to fill in the gap, ultimately lessening the impact of the stimulus.

Obey also didn’t sound too happy with the administration’s emphasis on using stimulus funding to advance education redesign objectives. He said that many school districts are already “facing a devastating storm just in terms of economic conditions” and may need to use much of their stimulus money just to save existing teacher’s jobs and programs. They might not have resources left over to do much that is new, he said.

Duncan also heard some pushback on the administration’s proposal to zero-out the $66.5 million Even Start Family literacy program.

“I’m troubled by the administration’s ‘Bush-inspired’ elimination of the Even Start program,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.said.

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., complained about a proposed cut to the Education Technology State grants, which were financed at $270 million in fiscal year 2009, but are slated for just $100 million under the Obama budget proposal. Roybal-Allard didn’t seem to think that including $650 million for the program in the stimulus package made up for the discrepancy.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 5:37 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

A key U.S. senator told Secretary of Education Arne Duncan this morning that he’s not a fan of the Obama administration’s proposal to shift $1 billion out of Title I grants for districts into the Title I school improvement program.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees education, said that he’s worried about reducing the level for the Title I program, which was financed at $14.5 billion in fiscal year 2009, but is slated for $13 billion in fiscal 2010, will make it harder to maintain the program’s funding in future years.

Harkin acknowledged that the program got a $10 billion one-time boost over two years under the stimulus package, but he said he’s worried about the impact of the proposal after the stimulus funding goes away.

“For this year and next year, things are fine,” Harkin said. “Obviously we’re looking at what happens when the recovery funds go out. You can say well, this is okay because we have all this money in the recovery act. But the problem with that is, you cut the base. If you cut the base this year, you have to make all that up” in fiscal year 2011.

Duncan, who was testifying before the committee on the administration’s budget, said he’s committed to keeping appropriations for the Title I program up going forward. And he used his new favorite line on the school improvement funding, saying it would train a “laser-like focus” on the schools that are struggling. But it didn’t sound to me like Harkin was buying that argument.

And another Obama proposal looks like it’s going to be a tough sell with some committee Democrats: the mega-increase for the Teacher Incentive Fund program. Obama’s budget seeks to boost funding for the TIF, which doles out grants for pay-for-performance programs from $97 million in fiscal year 2009 to $487.3 million in fiscal year 2010. That major hike would come on top of $200 million for the TIF in the stimulus.

But Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Duncan whether he could point to any studies that demonstrate the TIF’s effectiveness.

Duncan kind of tap-danced on that one, talking about his very positive experience with a TIF grant in Chicago. He said the grants only went to schools where 75 percent of teachers said they wanted them.

But Murray didn’t sound assuaged. While she said the program’s purpose “sounds good when [Duncan] says it,” she wants to make sure there are safeguards in place to make sure that the money isn’t used for programs that give out “subjective rewards” to educators. She said she’s particularly worried because the program has never been authorized by Congress.

Duncan said the grants wouldn’t go to schools that “pit teachers against each other” and said he’d work with Murray on his plan for the program. Still, that exchange has me wondering whether the Obama administration will get the full increase it is seeking for the fund.

Harkin also expressed some skepticism about the administration’s proposal to shift the Pell Grant program from the discretionary to the mandatory side of the ledger, where it wouldn’t be subject to the whims of the appropriations process (and incidentally, not under the subcommittee’s jurisdiction).

“There are reasons on both sides,” Harkin said. “There a lot of others ways that we can make sure that kids keep up their grades and keep up the work” to get a college education.

And it doesn’t sound like Harkin was too thrilled with Duncan’s suggestion that he would consider whether a state has caps on the number of charter schools in doling out the $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funding.

“Are charter schools a litmus test?” Harkin asked.

But Harkin and Duncan were on the same page on a very technical issue dealing with the implementation of the special education money in the stimulus act. (My colleague, Christina Samuels did a good job of explaining this tough-to-understand issue in this story.)

Duncan said he wasn’t allowing districts that hadn’t been meeting the needs of special education students to use the money for other purposes.

“Right on,” Harkin said.

And Harkin voiced support for some of the new programs included in the president’s budget, including a $50 million initiative to overhaul high schools and an $800 million investment in early-childhood education. And both Harkin and Duncan are on the same page when it comes to a longer school year. (Harkin suggested 11 months, Duncan suggested 12.)

Harkin also said he would seek to include some money for school facilities in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. That could mean one or more of Obama’s priorities may be scrapped or reduced to make room for a facilities program.

And the proposal is likely to spark another debate in Congress over whether the feds should be in the business of paying for school facilities. If you recall, both the House and Senate’s original versions of the stimulus bill included significant money for school facilities, but the program was jettisoned to earn the support of some moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 12:55 PM | Permalink | 3 Comments | Recommend

Today, Education Secretary Arne Duncan is headlining a day's worth of hearings on the U.S. Department of Education's fiscal 2010 budget.

In fact, listen to Duncan now in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee. Later, he'll testify before the House equivalent.

Politics K-12's Alyson Klein will monitor these hearings all day, and will be updating folks here.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 10:54 AM | Permalink | 3 Comments | Recommend

Several education advocacy organizations are riled up—as they probably should be—about a gap in the "transparency" of stimulus funds that I pointed out weeks ago. The U.S. Department of Education is refusing to make available the applications states submit for the state stabilization fund part of the stimulus package. The department only makes them public once they're approved. This does not permit the public to see beforehand what a state promised to do with its stimulus money, so that it can be compared with what a state ended up agreeing to do after any negotiations with the feds. What's more, you can't even see the original application after everything's been finalized.

The New Jersey-based Education Law Center, the New York-based Campaign for Fiscal Equity and the Alliance for Quality Education, and the Georgia School Funding Association sent a letter to the department urging much better transparency regarding the stabilization fund. By not making the submitted applications public while they are still being considered, taxpayers, parents, and other members of the public can't review them or comment on them, the letter points out.

"The lack of basic procedures to ensure accountability, openness and public participation by both states and USDOE is deeply concerning," David G. Sciarra, the executive director of the Education Law Center, told me in an email.

In fact, the New Jersey folks sent another letter today asking U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan & Co. to reject the state's application because it doesn't fully meet state school funding formula increases, especially in light of a new decision last week in the long-running Abbott case. Of course, I can't point you to New Jersey's stabilization fund application because the education department isn't making it public. This is the first time, that I'm aware of, that someone has petitioned the department to reject an application.

At least when it comes to these applications, one could question whether the education department is living up to those "unprecedented" levels of transparency that President Obama has touted.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:59 AM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend

From guest blogger Erik Robelen:

Apparently, a Democratic lawmaker in Texas didn’t get the talking points from Education Secretary Arne Duncan about expanding the charter schools sector.

A bill that would have allowed more charters to open in Texas was killed on the floor of the state's House of Representatives last night by a point of order raised by Democratic Rep. Lon Burnam, of Fort Worth, according to the Quorum Report, an independent newsletter on Texas politics.

Some charter critics couch their language diplomatically, but Rep. Burnam didn't mince words.

“This is a massive charter school expansion bill,” the Quorum Report quoted Rep. Burnam as saying to explain the move. “I hate charter schools. I’m going to kill this bill.”

Posted by Michele McNeil at 4:49 PM | Permalink | 4 Comments | Recommend

All is not well in Stimulus Land:

California made a $2.3 billion accounting error, relating to K-12 education spending, on its state stabilization fund application, ProPublica keenly notes. (Although this may be one of those bank errors in your favor, because this error looks like it will help California with its maintenance of effort requirements.)

And speaking of the stabilization fund, Pennsylvania's situation illustrates why some states haven't turned in their applications yet. Seems like the U.S. Department of Education is starting to think about a contingency plan in case all states can't—or don't—make the July 1 deadline.

Local school districts, for better or for worse, are apparently applying the lessons of Reading First to the stimulus, writes Mike Petrilli.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Forty-six states have signed onto the National Governors Association/Council of Chief State School Officers effort to pursue common academic standards, Michele reports today.

Of the four states not on the list, two have Republican governors who are widely rumored to be mulling a 2012 presidential run: Alaska (Gov. Sarah Palin) and South Carolina (Gov. Mark Sanford) aka Gov. Take-This-Stimulus-Check-And-Shove-It. That's interesting because, generally speaking, the state-led common standards movement has largely gained bipartisan support. In fact, South Carolina schools chief, Jim Rex, a Democrat, signed onto the compact. But since Sanford said no, the state can't be counted among the 46 signing on. Folks over at the state's Department of Education are bummed out about that, Michele said.

UPDATE: Gov. Palin has issued a press release on Alaska's non-participation, saying they will "monitor" the situation. “If this initiative produces useful results, Alaska will remain free to incorporate them in our own standards.”

Posted by Alyson Klein at 2:21 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend