Title I Funding

Administration Aims To Spur School Reforms With Title I Funds.

The Washington Post (4/14, Anderson) reports that President Obama "aims to reinvent the Education Department as a venture capitalist for school reform, investing more in schools with innovative ideas." According to the Post, "The Title I program, which supports...thousands of...schools in low-income areas based on formulas of need, is not facing extinction," but President Obama "would freeze funding to the core of that program even as he sends billions of dollars to states that harmonize their policies with his." The Post adds that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan "is expected to pitch the Obama budget Wednesday to the Senate Appropriations Committee."

 

School Administrators Concerned About Plan To Make Title I Funding Competitive. Valerie Strauss writes in the Washington Post (4/14, Strauss) "The Answer Sheet" blog that "as the Obama administration moves to turn more funding for federal education into competitive grants, superintendents across the country are becoming worried." They are particularly concerned that the administration is "planning to turn new money for the crucial Title 1 program--which provides funds for schools with large percentages of low-income students--into competitive grants." A recently-released study of superintendents by a school administrators group showed that "most superintendents believe that there is a role for competitive grants, but most worry about overinvestment in those grants at the expense of more reliable funding." Strauss posts a letter issued by the Learning First Alliance -- which includes the Association of School Business Officials International, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and the National Education Association -- "about concern over the administration's strategy."