Last Thursday the US Education Department released a letter sent by Education Secretary Arne Duncan to Pennsylvania Governor Rendell. In it, Secretary Duncan warns states from using the federal stimulus money to do “nothing more than backfill budget holes.” Unfortunately, Rhode Island is poised to spend almost all our education stimulus money to plug budget holes, unless funding for new initiatives like charter schools is restored. As a result, Rhode Island risks losing the race for billions of dollars in President Obama’s Federal “Race to the Top” program for education reform. An excerpt from the Secretary’s letter to Gov. Rendell:
Discretionary award applications, including Race to the Top funds, will be available in the coming months and will ask, among other things, to what extent a State has increased/decreased its education budget (as a percentage of revenue) and what a State has done with the dollars it has received to date. If a state has disproportionately decreased its education budget and/or if a State has done nothing more than backfill budget holes with these dollars when the State had other resources available to it, such as a rainy-day fund, the State’s competitive position to receive Race to the Top funds and/or other competitive grants may be negatively impacted.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan letter to Pennsylvania Governor Rendell
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