KUOW public radio program on Education Reform in Washington State

Posted on 12. Aug, 2009 by Molly Sumpter.

On KUOW’s  morning program, Robert Manwaring, senior policy analyst for Education Sector (a Washington, D.C. education think tank), and Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn held a discussion on education reform. Robin Lake, the associate director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington and executive director of the Center’s National Charter School Research Project, and Mary Lindquist, president of the Washington Education Association, also contributed to the discussion.

According to Manwaring, Washington is behind the pack on education reform, and will definitely need to change some things if we expect to receive any funding from the Race to the Top fund. 

Race to the Top is part of the federal stimulus package (otherwise known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act).  Overall, about $80 billion is going to education, $4 billion of which will be allocated by the Secretary of Education to “movers and shakers” on education reform.

The leaders in the race so far are Colorado and Florida.  They are doing almost everything right to receive this money, although it is still a competition, according to Manwaring.

The four areas that President Obama feels need the greatest improvement in our nation’s schools are teacher quality, turning around low-performing schools, investing in data systems, and investing in academic standards and investment.

To listen to the full archive of the radio program, head to KUOW’s website.

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July 28 conference call

Posted on 30. Jul, 2009 by Kelly.

We hosted a conference call about the current education landscape Tuesday night. Many thanks to those of you who joined us. For those that missed it, we now have a recording of the call. Since it’s a 4MB file, we recommend you email the link rather than the actual file.

Also, to help you follow along, this is the agenda we followed:

• Education Reform Bill HB2661 (George Scarola)
  • What is in the bill
  • What are the next steps to implement the bill
  • Possible reconvening of legislature on 1776
• Overview of School Districts (George Scarola)
  • Budget cuts
  • Stimulus Funds run out 2010/2011
• National (Lisa Macfarlane)
  • Stabilization/Race to the Top Funds
• State wide ballot issues (George Scarola)
  • Initiative 1033
  • Income Tax - Nov 2010
• Court Cases (Lisa Macfarlane)
  • Federal Way equity lawsuit
  • NEWS trial Sept
• Early Learning/Higher Education (Frank Ordway)
• Q&A

Listen to the entire conversation here.

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Additional ARRA guidelines released

Posted on 24. Jul, 2009 by Heather.

In addition to Race to the Top, the following guidelines are also out today:

Second round of State Fiscal Stabilization Fund grants

Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems grants

Guidelines for the Investing in Innovation Fund, Teacher Incentive Fund, Title I School Improvement Grants and State Educational Technology Grants will be released in the coming weeks, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

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Race to the Top guidelines released

Posted on 24. Jul, 2009 by Heather.

The U.S. Department of Education has released guidelines for Race to the Top funds.

Press release: President Obama, U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan Announce National Competition to Advance School Reform

White House blog: “Race to the Top”

Press conference: http://www.connectlive.com/events/deptedu/deptedu-040309-archive.asx

Race to the Top webpage: http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html

Guidelines: http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2009-17909_PI.pdf

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WA receives $672 million in stabilization funds

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by admin.

The U.S. Department of Education released Washington’s first wave of state fiscal stabilization fund dollars, to the order of $672 million.

In our application, we asked for $820 million:
Restore the level of state support for K-12 in FY2009:           $362 million
Restore the level of state support for colleges in FY2009:     $0
Restore the level of state support for K-12 in FY2010:            $357.3 million
Restore the level of state support for colleges in FY2010:      $100.7 million

Nothing in the U.S. Dept. of Ed. press release indicates why we received less than we applied for. However, the feds do note that we are eligible to apply for an additional $331 million in SFSF monies this fall. And prior to the SFSF payout, Washington received $194 million in stimulus funds (for Title I, IDEA, vocational rehabilitation and independent living grants).

Much of our 23-page application contains assurances Gov. Gregoire had to sign off on. Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn only needed to sign one page, and even then it was optional, go figure. (Most likely because most school chiefs are appointed, rather than elected). Attachment A of the application provides a summary of Washington policies and procedures that “address the assurances” and “illustrate means by which Washington will address them” (page 15-16 of the PDF).

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To date stimulus $ by county now available

Posted on 24. Mar, 2009 by admin.

The state’s ARRA website now features an interactive map detailing the known amounts of federal stimulus money each county will receive.

Focusing on education, Washington knows it will receive $349 million. Not surprisingly, the counties receiving the lion’s share are the most populous (King, Pierce and Snohomish). The site also breaks down whether the funds are for Title I or Special Education.

Here’s a quick glimpse (all $ in millions):

Also, the U.S. Department of Education published a PowerPoint today on ARRA, including guiding principles and availability of funding. About half of certain stimulus funds become available to the states by the end of March, and the remainder between the summer and fall.

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State ARRA website launched

Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by admin.

Keeping in step with the expectations of transparency and accountability for stimulus funds, Governor Gregoire launched a Washington-specific ARRA website. Many details (including specific dollar amounts) aren’t available yet, but you can find contacts for programs/agencies that will distribute funds.

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How will Federal Stimulus funds help Washington schools?

Posted on 03. Mar, 2009 by admin.

Thank you for sending in your questions. I choose five related to the fiscal stabilization funds (education and general purpose), school construction, supplanting, Head Start/Early Head Start, and the general budget picture in light of new federal funding. The video says that I answered six, but I had to cut one (on the innovation fund) because I ran out of time.

Have more questions? Let us know.

Here are some resources to go along with the video:

• Track how Washington spends stimulus funds
• LEV’s one-pager on education money we’ll receive in Washington State
• Estimated money distributed by school district
• Ed Week’s useful Q&A
• Economic Revenue and Forecast Council preliminary March 2009 forecast

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yit4ZG3CaCc]

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Stimulus Q&A

Posted on 27. Feb, 2009 by admin.

Michele McNeil and Alyson Klein of Education Week have hosted a 4-part Q&A session on the stimulus package on their blog, Politics K-12. The Q&A posts provide a good overview in layman’s terms about how the stimulus money could impact states, districts and schools.

Round 1 focused on dollar amounts.

Round 2 focused on teachers.

Rounds 3 and 4 focused on what funds can be used for.

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Stimulate our schools! Plllllease…

Posted on 05. Feb, 2009 by admin.

The economic stimulus package is now in the Senate. Of course I care about kids everywhere, but at the end of the day all politics is local. So, what’s in it for Washington?

Here is an overview of potential education ca$h for Washington:

House                                                   Senate
$443m K-12 education                   same

$343m 21^st century classrooms   $305m 21^st century classrooms

$43m early childhood                     same

$274 Pell Grants                                $222m Pell Grants

I spend a lot of time understanding early learning programs - which offer proven ROI and ironically are often the first programs on the chopping block. So here is what we could get in Washington if the Senate takes the House’s advice.

For Head Start: The National Women’s Law Center completed an state-specific analysis based on what $3b additional dollars would do, the House pass $2.1b, so I cut their estimates by one third:

New Head Start slots: 887

New Early Head Start slots: 586

Total new slots: 1,473

New money to Washington: $27m

Same goes for the CCDBG (Child Care Development Block Grant). CCDBG funds go primarily to Working Connections to Child Care subsides.

Potentially $33m new money for Washington.

5,333 new slots (added to 56,700 current slots)

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