Education Report for May 8, 2009

1. Budget and Appropriations
-The release of the Obama Administration's detailed FY 2010 budget request was the big news of the week.
-Promising news for education on the heels of stimulus funding, with $58.5 billion requested for education reform programs
-Funding specifics reflect the priorities that the administration has been stressing from the outset: early childhood education funding, increase in teacher Incentive fund, Pell Grant growth, 1.5 billion for school improvement grants.
-in addition to funding new funding, also singled out older programs deemed ineffective for elimination or consolidation
-READ COMPREHENSIVE CHART/BREAKDOWN OF ED SPENDING FROM WP FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION (above in legislative updates)
-A bold spending plan for education having been laid out by the administration, remains to be seen how it will be embraced by Congress as the process moves on to appropriations subcommittees.

2. Reauthorizing Best Practices under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
-4th in a series of House Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness Subcommittee hearings about the WIA
focused on adult education and family literacy
-distance learning and the importance of using technology to make ed opportunities more available to adults
-Stressed adult education as a worthwhile investment with immediate benefits for the workforce and economy

3. Educational Excellence Through Innovation
-Event heralded release of report "Stimulating Excellence: Unleashing the Power of Innovation in Education"
-Examined educational entrepreneurship as a way to breed innovation in education
-Presented findings based on interviews with entrepreneurs across the country
-DC Public Schools Chancellor Rhee participated in the discussion, citing the valuable role that support from entrepreneurial entities can play for public education based on her experience with groups like TFA and New Ventures for Schools

4. In Brief, headings include
-REDUCING HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS report
0AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT (ARRA) OVERSIGHT hearing surrounding need for transparency with stimulus allocation
-EHR ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING regarding science, math and technology
-WHITEHOUSE FILLS IN ON HELP COMMITTEE
-FORDHAM INSTITUTE HOLDS BRIEFING ON NATIONAL STANDARDS (see report text and link to more info)
-PRE-K NOW HOLDS CALL ON INVESTING TITLE I FUNDS IN PRE-K
-NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION HOLDS BRIEFING ON QUALITY PRE-K

Be sure to also scan sections #5 ("New Publications") and #6 ("In the News"), for articles of interest.