Education Report for February 20, 2009

Pleased be advised, the bullets below only provide a rough outline and are not intended as a substitute for the report (attached). NCSS strongly encourages you to read the refined report which will offer a more complete picture of recent events on Capitol Hill from the professionals at Washington Partners. You can easily navigate your areas of interest by using the bookmarks at the beginning of the attachment.

Highlights under each section of the attached report include:

1. Budget and Appropriations
-There was limited activity on the Hill this week during recess that followed President Day.
-The stimulus package having passed, attention shifted to the federal agencies and their plans to distribute funding.
-The Department of Education launched a website that will provide details and updates on their plans for disbursement (see in brief
section of report for more details and link).
-in the coming week attention will shift to the first Obama budget: The President will outline his priorities by addressing a joint session
on Tuesday and will release preliminary budget to Congress 2/26.
-Upon returning, Congress' focus will turn to finally reaching a conference agreement on the FY 2009 Omnibus Spending Bill (delayed
after the last Congress was unable to reach an agreement and the Continuing Resolution was passed). There is potential for more
conflict over spending between the parties during this debate.

2. Universities Supporting Entrepreneurship
-Panel discussion of the part the American university's can play in actively sparking innovation and entrepreneurship.
-MIT taken as a case-in-point.

**3. In Brief, headings include* :
Duncan Hails Passage of Stimulus Package and Announces Department of Ed. Website Resource--contains press release, detailed fact sheet, links to more budget info, and state-by-state allocation estimates (see report for more info and visit: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/index.html [1] )
Report Assesses College and Workforce-Readiness of High School Students--Report titled "Closing the Expectations Gap" showed some signs of progress and highlighted the work that remains to be done.
Representing Children in the Stimulus

Be sure to also scan sections #4 ("New Publications") and #5 ("In the News"), for articles of interest.