A year ago, the federal floodgates opened for aid to education, releasing a one-time surge of up to $100 billion in economic-stimulus money aimed at both stabilizing and transforming the nation’s public education system.
The results so far have been mixed, as weighed against the Obama administration’s twin goals for its unprecedented infusion of education funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
From the outset, the stimulus program’s education piece—among the largest elements of the $787 billion package intended to jump-start a recession-battered economy—was to serve both an economic and a school improvement purpose.
By pouring money into the coffers of states and districts already suffering from cuts to K-12 schooling, the ARRA aimed to stanch the fiscal bleeding and let them concentrate on the business of educating students. A year later, it’s clear that the stimulus package averted tens of thousands of teacher layoffs nationwide, and mitigated deep cuts to school programs.