After narrowly avoiding a government shutdown, Congress has approved legislation that would cut $38 billion from the Fy11 budget–including the complete elimination of the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology program, which educational technology advocates say will devastate state technology programs in schools.
President Obama is expected to sign the bill on April 15.
While programs such as Race to the Top and Investing In Innovation received funding, a host of ed-tech leaders and stakeholders say they are upset with the elimination of a dedicated educational technology funding program.
Without EETT funding, the nation’s schools could fall even further behind competing nations, said West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education.
The program provides much-needed funds for teachers to access high-quality professional development opportunities.
For more on the budget compromise, see:
“Education has trailed most other sectors in effectively applying new technologies to boost productivity and outcomes,” Wise said. “By pairing teachers and technology, the nation can create a powerful force multiplier that permits teachers to deliver high-quality content in new and innovative ways to all students, rural or urban, including in difficult to staff subjects such as math, science, and foreign language.”
“As America’s public school systems and their educational leaders step up to meet the challenge of preparing students to be internationally competitive, federal education policy must recognize the important role that education technology plays in providing a world-class education,” said Dan Domenech, the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).
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