Campaign for Educational Equity announces fifth
annual equity symposium: "Stimulating Equity?:
The Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act (ARRA) on Educational Opportunity"
The
Campaign for Educational Equity's fifth annual equity
symposium, “Stimulating Equity?: The Impact of
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) on
Educational Opportunity,” will be held on February
8 and 9, 2010 at Teachers College, Columbia University.
This event will be the first major national forum to
analyze, in-depth, the impact of the ARRA ( the federal
“stimulus bill” ) on educational equity
and on educational opportunity.
The stated purpose of the ARRA education funds is to
stabilize the education budgets of the states, allow
states to continue to fund equity and adequacy initiatives
in state funding formulae, and to “boost student
achievement.” By accepting this funding, each
state has committed to promoting four essential areas
of reform: 1) improving teacher effectiveness; 2) making
progress toward college and career-ready standards and
rigorous assessments; 3) enhancing data systems to track
educational practice; and 4) improving achievement in
low-performing schools.
Through the Recovery Act, the U.S. Department of Education
(USDOE) is expected to distribute approximately $100
billion over the next two years to states, school districts,
and higher education institutions. The availability
of this enormous increase in federal funding, and the
fact that the USDOE has focused on four critical priority
areas for the use of the funds, provides an extraordinary
opportunity to advance educational equity nationwide.
Yet, there remain five major potential obstacles to
its effective implementation:
- Governors, who have extensive discretion in how
these funds are allocated, may use the stabilization
funds to cover deficits instead of improving students’
opportunities in the four priority areas.
- Although the overall aim is to eliminate achievement
gaps, the funds may be distributed in a way that compromises,
rather than enhances, equity.
- USDOE has made clear that these funds as a one-time
opportunity tied to economic stimulus. States must,
therefore, use the funds in a way that promote significant
reform without establishing on-going programs or raising
expectations that this level of funding will continue.
- The Act does not take into account educational
funding realities and needs at the local level. Even
if state education budgets are stabilized or increased,
revenue problems and declining property tax bases
may lead to severe budget shortfalls.
- Historically, states and schools districts have
not proved adept in efficiently and effectively utilizing
large funding increases that are provided on short
notice.
The February symposium will examine each of these issues
by presenting nationwide analyses of how the stimulus
funds have been used, case study examples of effective
and ineffective uses of the funds, and explorations
of the long-term implications of this massive spending
experience on the role of the federal government in
promoting educational equity and educational reform.
We expect to do so by presenting broad-based policy
research studies; academic research papers; and model
approaches for promoting equity, advancing meaningful
education reform, and “avoiding the cliff.”
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For more information, visit the symposium
website or contact:
Jessica Garcia, jgarcia@tc.edu
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