Education Research Is a Winner in Obama's 2010 Budget
In this space a month ago, I reported that Marshall S. "Mike" Smith, a senior adviser over at the U.S. Department of Education, was hinting that the final version of President Obama's proposed 2010 budget would contain good things for research. He wasn't joking.
My colleague Alyson Klein reports in a May 8 article on the budget that the Institute of Education Sciences, the department's key research arm, would see its budget increase by 11.7 percent, to $689 million, under the proposed spending plan unveiled last Thursday. Here's the way the Obama administration wants to distribute the additional IES money: research, development, and dissemination overall, an extra $56.8 million; the regional education laboratories, $3 million more; the National Assessment of Educational Progress ("the nation's report card") and its governing board, a $34.7 million hike; grants for states to develop statewide data systems, $16.7 million more; and special education research, $2 million in added funds. See the details here.
Education research got no mention at all in the president's economic-stimulus package, so, if you hear a soft whooshing sound, it's probably a collective sigh of relief from the research community. Stay tuned, though. Experts are predicting a long and difficult budget battle ahead in Congress.
