Education/Stimulus Package (Knowledge Alliance)

You will note that there are significant boosts in many programs including Title I and IDEA. Programs of very special interest to mnay of you are:

* School Improvement Fund: $3 billion (amazingly up from $2 billion in House and $1.4 billion in the Senate)
* State wide data systems: $250 million
* Innovation fund: $650 million
* Education Technology: $650 million

In conversations with several Obama adminstration education reps over the past several days, we learned that the next two key concerns will be 1) distributing the funding as quickly as possible in accordance with the statute 2) ensuring the funds will have a significant impact on reform efforts. Over the weekend we will be having further discussions about how our members can play a significant role in these efforts.

Arne speaks --- Check out the Secretary’s interview with U.S. News & World Report outlining what he thinks about NCLB and the reauthorization of ESEA:

--focus on accountability for student achievement
--Less punitive.
--Academic standards that are more rigorous, aligned with each other, benchmarked with other leading nations.
--Fewer, better tests
--Better data management systems