Every Thursday, REL-NEI highlights state-based resources, press releases, and news around the Northeast and Islands Region related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). For a listing of REL Issues & Answers Reports categorized under ARRA topics and domains, click here.
ED to Release Stabilization Funds Quickly
Last week, ED pledged to release state stabilization funding within two weeks after receiving acceptable state applications. View the approved state stabilization funding applications, and check out the webcasts of ARRA on ED TV, including the most recent one last week, which featured an outstanding high-poverty high school in Arlington, Virginia.
As part of Secretary Arne Duncan's ongoing effort to provide helpful, user-friendly information on the (ARRA), ED has posted a new resource: “Using ARRA Funds to Drive School Reform and Improvement.” “This document includes framing questions for decision-making and examples of potential uses of funds to improve educational outcomes from early learning through high school. It is intended to spark ideas about how school districts and schools might use ARRA funds, particularly those available under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, Title I, and IDEA, Part B programs.”
These initial examples are organized into five categories that reflect the priorities of the ARRA:
- Adopting rigorous college- and career-ready standards and high-quality assessments;
- Establishing data systems and using data for improvement;
- Increasing teacher effectiveness and equitable distribution of effective teachers;
- Turning around the lowest-performing schools; and
- Improving results for all students, including early childhood learning, extended learning time, use of technology, preparation for college, and school modernization.
On April 23rd, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted its initial bimonthly review to examine how Recovery Act funds are being spent and whether they are achieving ARRA goals. These reviews will focus on 16 states and the District of Columbia, which contain about 65 percent of the U.S. population. They are also estimated to receive about two thirds of the intergovernmental grants funds available through the Recovery Act. The full report can be found here, and the summary can be found here.
An April 29th article in The Hartford Courant (“Legislators Debating How To Use Stimulus Money In Connecticut Schools”) profiles debate among lawmakers in Hartford on whether stimulus funds should be used to preserve local school aid (and help cities and towns avoid laying off teachers and curtailing programs), or whether the funds should be used “to be more than a financial stop-gap for schools,” as Senator Joseph Lieberman suggested. Lawmakers who feel similarly to Lieberman believe the funds should be used to “spark reform” through “bolstering promising programs” and the U.S. Department of Education's $5 billion "Race to the Top" grants competition. To date, no money has been allocated towards education.
On April 22, Maine released its “State Agency Weekly Reports on American Recovery & Reinvestment Act Activities for Week Ending April 17th.” Among other things, the DOE revised the State Fiscal Stabilization application and presented ED’s PowerPoint on the ARRA to more than 100 special-education directors. See what other activities took place at the Maine DOE.
On April 22nd, in Albany, New York, Johanna Duncan-Poitier, Senior Deputy Commissioner of Education, sent a memo (PDF) to District Superintendents of Schools, Superintendents of Public Schools, and Presidents of School Boards to provide them with additional guidance on permissible (and non-permissible) expenditures of the ARRA State Fiscal Stabilization Fund for Education.
This week in Rhode Island, the Department of Education is meeting with local school districts to discuss the $83 million Rhode Island should receive in funding for disadvantaged and special needs children.
For more information, visit these Recovery.gov websites across the Northeast & Islands Region:
Connecticut
http://www.recovery.ct.gov/recovery/site/default.asp
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2703&Q=322296
Maine
http://www.maine.gov/recovery/
http://www.maine.gov/education/recovery/index.html
Massachusetts
www.mass.gov/recovery
http://www.doe.mass.edu/arra/
New Hampshire
http://www.nh.gov/recovery/
http://www.ed.state.nh.us/education/recovery/index.htm
New York
http://uspeny.nysed.gov/arra/
Rhode Island
http://www.recovery.ri.gov/
http://www.ride.ri.gov/Finance/Funding/ARRA/
Vermont
http://education.vermont.gov/new/html/dept/recovery_act.html
Puerto Rico
http://www.buengobiernopr.com/arra/index.html
U.S. Virgin Islands
http://www.governordejongh.com/recovery/index.html
US Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/index.html
Knowledge Alliance
http://www.knowledgeall.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87&Itemid=34
Council of State Governments: StateRecovery.org
http://www.staterecovery.org/education
