There's Edu-Gold in Them Thar States?
For the past three years, we have heard a great deal about the financial cliffs our states were falling off, particularly with regard to education funding. When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed in early 2009, the promise was additional dollars to the states for K-12 education, all in the name of ensuring that programs and service levels were not slashed as a result of the economic downturn.
Today, states and school districts are forced to confront the next "new normal," a normal where the stimulus dollars are gone, state economies are still fragile and hurting, and schools are being asked to do more with far less. District after district notes we've long passed the point of cutting school budgets to the bone. We're now at the marrow.
An interesting new report from Education Research Strategies offers an interesting take on the "cupboard is bare" reality facing so many school districts. In Restructuring Resources for High-Performing Schools: A Primer for State Policymakers, ERS authors Karen Hawley Miles, Karen Baroody,
