More on the stimulus money

Here's a bit more information and explanation about the proposed uses of the stimulus money. Please note that this is all from the bill before the House, as the Senate has not yet weighed in on it.

The bill would try to keep state funding of schools and colleges up to FY08 levels, and then puts $15b (over 2 years) into improvement, focused on three things:
- equalizing distribution of well-prepared teachers (interestingly, does not use the term 'highly qualified';
- improve the collection and use of data;
- and improve assessment

FUNDING FOR ESEA PROGRAMS (all of this money is evenly split between Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010 (money for school years 2009-10 and 2010-11):

· $13 billion for Title I. It's important to note that $2 billion of this $13 billion is for the School Improvement grant program. That program is currently funded at $491 million, so an additional $1 billion per year more than triples funding. These funds are used to help schools that failed AYP improve and make AYP.

· $1 billion for education technology state grants

· $25 million for charter school facilities

· $200 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund

· $250 million for "States to enable them to design and develop statewide longitudinal data systems that use individual student data for reporting and improving student achievement and to facilitate research to improve student achievement and close achievement gaps".

(I've also got a lot more on the policy stuff around the data collection systems, if anyone out there is interested)