The administration released its 2010 budget proposal yesterday.????Check out the specifics here.
Just a few highlights???????
First, it has slightly higher discretionary spending than the 2009 budget (but remember that the ARRA is pumping nearly $100 billion through ED on top of 2009 and 2010 funds).
Second, in non-K-12 news, it includes a small increase in the maximum Pell grant award and adds lots of new money for early childhood programs.
Third, there is a relatively small $10 million for the ???????Promise Neighborhoods??????? initiative.???? This is the administration's attempt to replicate the Harlem Children's Zone.???? This money will support planning grants for cities that want to create their own versions.????I'm VERY skeptical of this initiative because HCZ is extraordinarily expensive, its early results were very questionable (it took lots of rethinking and reworking to get it right), and such extensive wrap-around services are neither necessary nor sufficient to bring about improved student achievement.????I would prefer the feds stay out of this business.
Fourth, there's a big increase for the Teacher Incentive Fund (up to $517 million from under $100 million in 2009), which incentives states and districts to experiment with performance/merit pay.????This is good news, but the devil will be in the details: will ED end up funding truly innovative programs or more status-quo oriented proposals (i.e. those favored by unions)?
Fifth, there's a huge ($1 billion) increase for School Improvement Grants.????This program is designed to help fix struggling schools.????I'm VERY, VERY, VERY, concerned about this.????At some future date, I'll elaborate, but in short, there is a mountain of evidence showing that turnarounds are not a scalable strategy for fixing broken urban school districts.????This evidence is confirmed by tons of evidence from other industries showing that turnaround strategies always have low success rates.????I think this enormous funding increase should only be supported as far as it requires schools in restructuring to be closed and then replaced by new schools. ????(In fairness, Duncan closed some persistently failing schools in Chicago, so maybe he agrees that turnarounds/reconstitutions/restructurings seldom work.)
Sixth, the administration is asking for $100 million for a ???????What Works and Innovation Fund.???????????This would continue or add to the work begun with the $650 million ???????Innovation Fund??????? in the ARRA.????The idea is to scale up successful programs already underway.????Getting this money would be a coup for Secretary Duncan: $100 million that he could direct to his favorite programs.
Finally, the Charter School Grant Program gets an additional $52 million, which is a big increase in relative terms but pennies compared to the increases in the Teacher Incentive Fund and the School Improvement program.???? (During the campaign, President Obama promised to double charter school funding, so he's about $150 million short.)
(As a reminder, this is just the administration's budget proposal.???? The congressional appropriations process will ultimately determine final amounts.???? That should be complete by Oct 1, but it hasn't worked that way in years.)