Education Jobs Bill –Allow Funds to be Spent over Multiple Years and Invest in Special Education

To date most of the debate on Senator Harkin proposed $23 billion edujobs bill has focused on teacher seniority policy (See National Journal for both sides of that debate). But, I propose that the Senate consider two changes to how this funding gets used that have nothing to do with that debate. First, any funding package should allow states to spread the funding over multiple years. Second, a portion of the funding should be set aside for special education and a small portion for student information systems.

 There has obviously been debate about whether a second education package is needed or not, and whether teacher jobs should be saved when other jobs are not. And, even if Congress can agree on making investments to preserve education jobs, will the additional funding stay in education or will states reduce their state and local support for education and redirect those funds to help solve state budget holes. I think that the case can be made for providing at least some additional temporary relief for education funding. In some states like California, Florida and Michigan state economies are still really struggling and as a result school budgets will lead to mass teacher layoffs which will have a ripple effect through the rest of their fragile economies. But, in some states the situation is far less dire.

 The current proposal would require the funds to be used exclusively in 2010-11. Clearly, stimulus round I created a funding cliff and everyone knew it when it was passed. But, the hope was that an economic recovery would soften the fall. That has not happened, thus the need for stimulus round II. Given the lack of job creation and the current economic forecast, it is hard to believe that everything will be rosy a year from now. So, why are we setting up another fiscal cliff with this stimulus package?

 If the federal government does provide additional education funding, states should be allowed to spread the funding over several years if they are in a financial position to do that. This flexibility will allow many states to smooth the transition out of large federal stimulus funding to self sustainable budgeting. States can use the funding strategically to maintain their existing program, and also ensure that they will be able to maintain it after the stimulus funds run out.

 Such flexibility would not likely change the behavior of states in the most dire budget situations like California and Florida. They will likely frontload the use of the funding, just like they did with Stimulus I, and save jobs today, and deal with their structural budget problem the following year. But, other states should not be forced to face a large fiscal cliff, just because California needs all of their share of a stimulus package in the first year.

 Invest some of the additional funding in special education. If there is a bipartisan funding priority in education, it is special education.  Special education creates a unique budget situation for school districts in that the district does not have the option to reduce the level of services. So, as district budgets are reduced, special education’s share of the shrinking pot simply grows. This often causes a lot of bad blood between special education  and programs serving the general student population.  

 Districts can often save money in the long run with early intervention programs that address student’s needs in the early elementary grades, and reduce future special education rates and costs in the future. But, early intervention programs often call for near term increases in funding. So to take advantage of early intervention opportunities and to help support a clear bipartisan priority that might help get a edujobs bill moving, consider allocating a portion of the funding for special education.

 Finally, an additional set-aside for student information systems would also make sense. Good data systems are a gateway requirement for implementing most of the education reforms that are currently being discussed. But, Stimulus round I was only able to provide grants to 20 states, leaving most state with reduced opportunities to move forward on important improvements to their data systems in the near term. Again this is a bipartisan areas of educational investments that is a great use of one-time funding.

Tagged as: Database of Student Information, School Budgets, Special Education, Stimulus Funding