Budget proposal may hurt schools
WASHINGTON — If the U.S. Department of Education's latest budget proposal is any indication, the age of easy money for north country school districts may be winding down.
The Obama administration is moving away from large formula grants, which are targeted toward areas with high poverty rates, toward funding that schools will have to compete for to receive. That has some north country school officials, as well as lawmakers, concerned that the region may be shortchanged on an important source of money.
The administration requested $14.5 billion for so-called Title I grants, the same amount funded this year when additional money provided through the economic stimulus is included. Education Secretary Arne Duncan acknowledged in a briefing with reporters recently that the administration is putting the new funding in next year's budget into the competitive Race to the Top program, rather than into formula grants, as part of its new emphasis on performance standards.
"We basically moved all of the money into competitive grants," Mr. Duncan said. The traditional formula grants have been distributed "without accountability or rewards for success," he said.
Schools in Northern New York receive millions of dollars in Title I grants because of their high percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — in some cases half or more of students. The Indian River Central School District received $800,000 in Title I funds this year, or slightly more than officials expect to receive in Race to the Top money, if the district is approved at all, Superintendent James Kettrick said.
"I think students stand to possibly lose out because of this," Mr. Kettrick said. He said he understands the administration's push for improved education standards but believes money distributed by formula has a critical place.
The shifting emphasis at the Education Department has caught the attention of Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who mentioned it in a conference call with reporters following the budget release.
A spokesman for Mr. Schumer, Maxwell Young, said the concern in the senator's office is that smaller schools that rely on Title I funding will be at a disadvantage in a competitive program because they lack grant application writers or tools to prepare the best applications.
"We must make sure small school districts are not left out in the cold in the competition for results-based education funding in the president's budget," Mr. Schumer said in a statement. "Larger districts that can afford to hire grant writers should not have a leg up on smaller districts that can't. The federal award process should make special considerations for smaller districts. This will be a priority for me as Congress develops its 2011 budget."
In Watertown, school Superintendent Terry N. Fralick said he worries that the district will have trouble competing and that doing so requires renegotiating portions of contracts with the teachers' union. "The process might leave us at a disadvantage," he said.
And while Title I funding has declined over the years, Mr. Fralick said, it is a "great resource for our school district."
Mr. Fralick took issue with officials' contention that the grant program lacks accountability or standards. The district has used the money specifically for literacy and math programs, including hiring staff for those programs, and has been subject to the same requirements under the No Child Left Behind law as other districts, he said.
That law requires schools to meet benchmarks or face loss of federal funds, but it has fallen into disfavor with many lawmakers and education officials. Mr. Duncan said it did not set high enough goals and was "too prescriptive" in telling schools how to meet standards.
The competitive program, on the other hand, has higher standards but is less prescriptive, Mr. Duncan said.
While school districts can more or less count on receiving Title I funds and account for that in their budgets, funding from Race to the Top is much less certain. Indeed, Mr. Duncan said, "there will be more losers than winners" in seeking the money.
"We're just going to have a very high bar here," he said.
New York state applied for Race to the Top funds Jan. 19. The next round of funding will total $1.35 billion nationally, the federal Education Department reported.
