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June: Five education grants you don’t want to miss

School funding difficulties show no sign of abating, and school budgets are stretched to the limit. Many educators and administrators rely on school grants to fund important projects and opportunities for students.

During the first week of every month, the editors of eSchool News compile a list of the most current education grants expiring soon—from student fitness to iPads. You don’t want to miss out on these school funding opportunities for teachers, students, parents, and administrators!

(Next page: Thousands for after-school, student fitness)…Read More

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Seven key stats with important implications for schools

The percentage of U.S. students living in poverty jumped by 40 percent in the last decade, and total funding for K-12 education dropped by $1 billion from 2008-09 to 2009-10. Yet, despite these challenges, high school graduation rates are slowly climbing—and more students are completing math and science courses, according to the latest figures from the National Center on Education Statistics.

Released May 23, “The Condition of Education 2013”—the latest in an annual series of reports from NCES, a branch of the U.S. Department of Education—is chock full of valuable statistics for policy makers and education leaders. Here are seven findings of particular significance for K-12 education.

1. Public school enrollment is projected to increase by 7 percent from 2010-11 to 2021-22.…Read More

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Five education grants you don’t want to miss

The editors of eSchool News have compiled a list of the most current education grants expiring soon—from AP test assistance to environmental programs. You don’t want to miss out on these school funding opportunities for teachers, students, parents, and administrators.

(Next page: Win thousands!)…Read More

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Report: Here’s how to fix school funding

Until the current school funding model is redesigned to one that is based on students instead of on institutions, even the most potentially revolutionary educational models will fail, according to a new financial report.

The report, “Funding Students, Options, and Achievement,” part of Digital Learning Now’s Smart Series, stresses that today’s school finance system was not created with the flexibility needed to support the wave of educational innovations, such as online learning, spreading across the U.S.

“Decades of layering on attempted fixes to a broken system have only created a funding structure that is fraught with a growing list of problems,” the report says. “Today’s broken school finance system stifles innovation; locks in outdated delivery models; restricts universal student access to divers, high-quality learning opportunities; and ignores the relationship between spending and student outcomes.”…Read More

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Three federal education policy updates

School funding cuts could be severe under sequestration.

As Congress nears a deadline to form a compromise and avoid sequestration, education stakeholders are hoping to avoid devastating school funding cuts that could put an end to some promising practices across the country.

A recent Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE) webinar explored where some federal education policies stand, what President Obama’s second term holds for teachers and students, and what could happen if sequestration occurs.

President Obama’s education reform plans…Read More

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More schools consider ads on websites

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Texas school funding plan is unconstitutional, judge rules

School attorneys said the poorest 15 percent of Texas school districts receive about $43,000 less per classroom than the wealthiest 15 percent, on average.

The system that Texas uses to fund its public schools violates the state’s constitution by not providing enough money to school districts and failing to distribute the money fairly, a judge ruled Feb. 4 in a landmark decision that could force the state Legislature to overhaul the way it pays for education.

Moments after closing arguments in his packed courtroom, state District Judge John Dietz ruled the school funding mechanism does not meet the Texas Constitution’s requirements for a fair and efficient system that provides a “general diffusion of knowledge.”

He declared that school funding was inadequate and that there were wide discrepancies in state support received by school districts in wealthy parts of Texas versus those in poorer areas. He also said the system is tantamount to an income tax, which is forbidden by the state constitution.…Read More

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Expert shows school district funding disparities

The Texas Legislature’s decision to cut $1.4 billion in grants to public schools disproportionately hurt poor districts, costing them $253 per student a year compared with $21 a year for rich districts, an expert testified Monday, the Associated Press reports. Albert Cortez, policy director at the Intercultural Development Research Association, also said that Texas’ poorest school districts charge higher local property taxes yet collect about a fourth less in revenue per student than the state’s wealthiest districts. He said the poorest 10 percent of districts statewide levy an average of 11 cents more per $100 valuation in local property taxes compared with the wealthiest 10 percent of districts. However, that translates to about $1,430 less in funding per student — a 25 percent difference between the two groups…

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Schools anticipate continued budget cuts

An end to emergency federal funding and the threat of mid-year cuts could disrupt economic recovery.

School districts, already operating in their fourth consecutive year of budget cuts, do not anticipate returning to pre-recession funding levels for several years. In a new survey from the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), school leaders report continued erosion of fiscal resources as the worst recession in recent history continues to impact state and local budgets.

The study, “Weathering the Storm: How the Economic Recession Continues to Impact Schools,” is the twelfth in a series of AASA studies examining the impact of the economic recession on schools. The study is based on a survey of 528 school administrators from 48 states in February 2012.

Respondents project new budget cuts in the 2013-14 school year, though the projected cuts might not be as deep as in the earlier years of the recession. Twenty-nine states are projecting budget shortfalls of $44 billion for FY 2013.…Read More

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Advocates: New York state owes poor schools $5.5 billion

Education advocates on Wednesday pushed New York State to increase funding for schools in impoverished areas in the budget for the new fiscal year, saying those schools are owed $5.5 billion under a 2007 court ruling, Reuters reports. The Education Law Center, which absorbed the advocate group that had won the historic school funding lawsuit, did not specify how much extra funding it is seeking in the budget for poor school districts for the budget for fiscal 2013, which starts April 1. New York’s top court in 2007 had ruled that the state had failed to provide students in poor areas with the constitutionally required “sound, basic education.” New York had started to fulfill the court ruling by agreeing to a four-year increase in aid for students in so-called high needs areas. Spending rose more than $1 billion in 2007 and 2008, according to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the group that had won the lawsuit. There was no funding increase in 2009, however…

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