Education Week bloggers Alyson Klein and Michele McNeil continue gathering answers to questions on the $115 billion in education aid under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the recent economic-stimulus package. Here are highlights from some of their most recent blog posts. (For previous rounds of questions and answers, see Economic Stimulus Q&A, March 4, 2009.)
Q Has there been any clarification as to whether federal money will be available for independent schools?
A There鈥檚 no money in the bill specifically for private or independent schools. But some private schools that serve students in special education do receive funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which got about $12 billion in the stimulus.
Any funds left over in the stabilization fund after states 鈥渂ackfill鈥� their education budgets can go to any program authorized under the No Child Left Behind Act (and a number of other federal education laws). That would include Title V of NCLB, which is intended to support innovative programs. Private schools can indirectly benefit.
It鈥檚 not yet known what the grant criteria will be for the $625 million in innovations grants. That money can go to nonprofits (which most private schools are) that partner with school districts or with a consortia of schools.
Note: There is a specific prohibition in the bill that says none of the money can go to provide financial assistance to students to attend private elementary or secondary schools. We鈥檙e taking that to mean 鈥渘o vouchers.鈥�
Q Is there anything in the stimulus package to help charter schools?
A Much of the money flows through existing formulas, such as Title I or the IDEA, so any public charter school that benefits now from the formula will get a piece of the stimulus. The stabilization fund is used first to backfill cuts through the state鈥檚 school funding formula, so as long as the charter school gets money through the state鈥檚 funding formula, it would get money through the stabilization as well. Given the nature of the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 innovation fund, it鈥檚 likely charter schools would be good candidates as well.
Charter schools may also be eligible for school bonding monies, including an expanded New Markets Tax Credit, which charter schools have already tapped.
Q Regarding special education, do you know of any accommodations for 鈥渕aintenance of effort鈥� that would allow districts to use the money to pay for programs that already exist?
A (Thanks to Education Week鈥檚 Christina A. Samuels, the author of the blog, for answering this question.) The maintenance-of-effort provisions that currently exist within the idea will apply to stimulus funds. That means that a district can鈥檛 take all of its stimulus money and use that to pay for current special education programs.
There is, however, some flexibility in the 鈥渟upplement, not supplant鈥� provisions under the 2004 reauthorization of the idea. If the federal government allocates more money to a district from one year to the next, the district is allowed to take the difference between the two allocations, halve it, and use that figure to reduce its own funding requirements. So, if a district received $1 million in federal funds for one fiscal year, and $1.5 million the next fiscal year, the district is allowed to reduce its local funding requirements by $250,000.
But it鈥檚 also important to note there are other ways to use stimulus money without expanding programs and without having to maintain that effort when the money disappears. For example, a one-time expenditure on educational technology wouldn鈥檛 be a program expansion and wouldn鈥檛 be subject to maintenance of effort.
