Thanks to the painstaking, yet necessary exercise of fact-checking a story this afternoon, I came across two important changes to the rules for the $3.5 billion in Title I school improvement aid that the Education Department is gearing up to dole out to states later this year.
Thelma Melendez , the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, lays it all out in this recent letter to state schools chiefs. See pages 11-17 of this Powerpoint presentation from the Education Department to get even more explanation.
Under the tweaked rules—which resulted from a spending bill signed
UPDATED: K-12 Could Be Bright Spot in Austere Budget
K-12 education could be one of the few areas increased in the president's budget.
According to this story, President Barack Obama's budget will call for up to a $4 billion boost to the U.S. Department of Education's budget, or a 6.2 percent increase. Part of that includes the $1.35 billion in additional Race to the Top spending.
And at least $1 billion will be used to help push the administration's goals for renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, whose current version is the No Child Left Behind law. Of course, in past budgets, various administrations have proposed all sorts of funding and Congress has simply moved it around to meet their needs.
But obviously, reauthorization has moved up the legislative agenda, possibly because it's one of the few areas where there is likely to be some bipartisan agreement and cooperation.
The Department won't be without a f