Stimulus and its Affects on Education in Florida
The Department of Education recently released "A Blueprint for Reform." The blueprint talks quite a bit about "resource equity" among schools, which sounds a lot like liberals' goal of equalizing schools funding. It even calls for the "equitable distribution" of effective teachers and principals:
"Over time, districts will be required to ensure that their high-poverty schools receive state and local funding levels (for personnel and relevant non-personnel expenditures) comparable to those received by their low-poverty schools. States will be asked to measure and report on resource disparities and develop a plan to tackle them. States will also be required to develop meaningful plans to ensure the equitable distribution of teachers and principals that receive at least an 'effective' rating."
While the stimulus package may have averted thousands of teacher layoffs nationwide, and mitigated deep cuts to school programs, as states scramble to comply with new federal demands in exchange for the new money and rushes to overhaul laws in the hope of winning even more through competitive grants, it remains to be seen whether the aid will produce lasting changes in K-12 policy. The windfall in education aid from the federal government will start to run out for most states this year, forcing states to find other revenues or make cuts to deal with future shortfalls. Florida has decided to spread the education related money out over two years, so the impact will continue into the 2010/11 school year.
All of the money (through the $48.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund) is being handed out in a two-year time frame, which ends in September. Never before has so much money been pumped so fast into local school districts. The total is nearly double the amount of discretionary money for which the federal Department of Education is usually responsible.
Additional money ($4.3B) is to be distributed through competitive grants via the Race to the Top (RTTT) program. The awards are to be made at the education secretary's discretion. This gives the Obama administration significant leverage to get states to make changes in their K-12 school systems according to criteria favored by the administration. Forty states and the District of Columbia put in bids for Race to the Top, including Florida.
Whilethe Administration insisted that RTTT was created to spur significant changes among states, its performance to date raises questions about how robust the reforms will be. For example, Florida introduced a merit pay plan to base half of teachers' performance grades on student test scores, which is supposed to be one of the key objectives of RTTT. Nevertheless, Florida did not receive an RTTT grant. The Administration claimed that reforms such as these would determine RTTT eligibility, but it appears union buy-in may have played a greater role than reform. RTTT winners Delaware and Tennessee had nearly 100 percent union support for their grant applications. Florida, which had a robust reform plan, did not garner much union support. One of the reviewers for Florida's application stated,
"The fact that only 8% of union leaders…endorsed the state's application raises a concern about barriers. The application does not address how the state will move forward assertively to generate union buy in."
Did union buy-in played a major role in awarding RTTT funds? Professor Jay Greene of the University of Arkansas:
"If people know that union opposition scuttles a state's chances, then no state will apply in the future unless they have union support. This means that the unions will dictate what reforms will be pursued, which means that there will be virtually no reform."
The 'Blueprint' retreats from requirements that parents be allowed to choose other public schools or private tutoring when schools repeatedly failed, which was a key theme of the Bush administration's NCLB. The new plan does more to empower bureaucrats. The Obama administration plans to increase the size of the 600-employee Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Education to address racial disparities in areas like disciplinary action and Advanced Placement courses. Secretary Arne Duncan announced:
"In coming weeks and months, we will be issuing a series of guidance letters to school districts and postsecondary institutions that will address issues of fairness and equity. We will be announcing a number of compliance reviews to ensure that all students have access to educational opportunities."
Rather than pursuing equalized funding, which hasn't proven successful, why not empower parents of all races and income levels to choose a school? Instead the Obama administration allowed the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program to be dismantled.
Florida is participating in a number of additional programs, including the Title 1 Recovery Fund, School Lunch Equipment Grants, Educational Technology Grants, and Stabilization Education Funding. Many of these programs require commitment to education reforms as defined by these programs.
The federal government supplies less than 10 percent of the funding that goes to local schools but is expecting far more than its share of the policy demands. Instead of continuing to increase federal funding for education, policymakers should award states greater authority over how federal funds are spent or refuse the money.
