Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Stimulus update

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act offers multiple pots of money for Kentucky Education.

Fiscal stabilization dollars are being used to fend off cuts. P-12 schools and public higher education will get shares of the total this year and next, but it won't be added money: just replacements for money the state would have sent if we didn't have a revenue crisis. ($533 million for education)

Title I and IDEA additional dollars are going to school districts for stronger services to at-risk students and students with disabilities. ($158 million for Title I grants, $158 million for IDEA school grants, $11 million for IDEA preschool, $5 million for IDEA infants and toddlers)

Improvement grant funding for the state's weakest schools have not yet been released from Washington. Commissioner Holliday has offered a good summary of the draft rules for how that money can be used here, but the rules are not final and the money has not yet been released. ($47 million)

Innovation funding will be awarded competively to districts with strong results and to partnerships of districts and nonprofits to expand best practices and share them with other schools. I haven't heard any Kentucky districts publicly announce plans to apply, though I've heard some serious thinking behind the scenes. ($650 million available to be divided among winning states, with some details here.)

Race to the Top funding will be awarded competitively to states with the best records of past reform and the best plans for future reform. I blogged the draft rules for those grants here and the NEA comments on the draft here, and the final rules should be released soon. KDE already has work underway thinking about what our application should include. ($4 billion to be divided among winning states, plus $350 million for improved assessments.)

And, beyond that:
  • $10 million in technology grants
  • $1 million for McKinney-Vento homeless services
  • $2 million for school lunch equipment
  • $11.5 million for Head Start
Sources: Innovation and RTTT numbers from past blog-posts cited above. All other figures from the Kentucky at Work site here.

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Updates and data on Kentucky education!