Obama wants stimulus to transform schools

[babylonsister]

Obama wants stimulus to transform schools

By LIBBY QUAID
AP Education Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama wants to do more than save teachers' jobs or renovate classrooms with his economic recovery bill. He wants to transform the federal government's role in education.

Public schools will get an unprecedented amount of money - double the education budget under George W. Bush - from the stimulus bill in the next two years. With those dollars, Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan want schools to do better.

From Duncan's perspective, the sheer size of the stimulus bill makes it a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put lasting reforms in place.

"It's also an opportunity to redefine the federal role in education, something we're thinking a whole lot about," Duncan said recently. "How can we move from being (about) compliance with bureaucracy to really the engine of innovation and change?"

The bill includes a $5 billion fund solely for these innovations, an amount that might not seem like much, considering the bill's $787 billion price tag. But it is massive compared with the $16 million in discretionary money Duncan's predecessors got each year for their own priorities.

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/STIMULUS_EDUCATION?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Deep13]

1. suits me. nt

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Money's not going to solve what's wrong with my school.

Unless they hire thousands of new people to do testing and assessment and attendent data collection. That way teachers can teach and Duncan can get legititmate stats.

As it is now, everyone has to pass .... or there will be consequences: for the teacher , for the administrators, for the districts, for the local politicians. That's why the state scores are inflated... relative to the national benchmarks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. We need to get rid of NCLB

to stop all this insane testing.

[firedupdem]

4. Good amount of money finally for education! I do hope that

they don't just reform NCLB but get rid of it! I don't know any teachers that think it helps children.