The Stimulus Bill has been signed by President Obama and institutions are anxious for the funds to start flowing. In an Education Week article, Alyson Klein highlighted some of the more significant challenges facing Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

• Top posts within the Department of Education have yet to be filled.
• Political appointees, not the career staff at the department, will be accountable for where the funds are channeled.
• School districts are pressing for details on how much money they’ll receive and are concerned that there aren’t specific guidelines in place for the timing of disbursements from the states to the districts.
• Secretary Duncan can waive the “maintenance of effort” requirement for states in dire economic circumstances, but the Education Department will need to determine which states are eligible for the exception.
• In keeping with the government transparency, schools will need to provide public notice on the Internet regarding how the funds are being spent.

Aides to Democrats in the House hope a large portion of the education funding contained in the Stimulus Bill will make it to state governments before July 1st. Duncan said, “We have to implement and execute this in an absolutely impeccable manner.” He also said, “the department plans to be very fast…in allocating the money and will give states real guidance around speed.”

To view stimulus funding for education in detail, see the PDF in Education Week’s article.

John F. Hood
President, MCH Inc.

As the details of the Stimulus Appropriations becomes more clear, it is apparent that congress has given tremendous authority and latitude about the spending directly back to President Obama and his cabinet. Department Secretaries are given authority to waive rules, set standards (or not), choose recipients, and choose timing. While the law provides direction, it also provides flexibility in the interest of getting the money spent quickly.

Here are some examples:

According to the Congressional Research Service: “The H.R.1 (stimulus bill) conference agreement does not provide guidance to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services … on whether or not all the funds should be obligated in the first year of availability.” This refers to $2 billion in new childcare funding, representing a doubling of federal spending if spent in one year. These funds are available as of the enactment of the law, February 17, 2009.

The New York Times reported today under the headline: “For Education Chief, Stimulus Means Power, Money and Risk”. The article says: “Most of Mr. Duncan’s unusual power would come in disbursing a $54 billion stabilization fund intended to prevent public sector layoffs, mostly in schools. The bill sets aside $5 billion of that to reward states, districts and schools for setting high standards and narrowing achievement gaps between poor and affluent students. The law lets Mr. Duncan decide which states deserve awards and which programs merit special financing.”

“Congress usually spends two years debating the rules for how to spend $50 million,” said Jack Jennings, President of the Center on Education Policy, a research organization in Washington. “But this time they’re providing money without spelling out how it should be spent, so Arne Duncan and his staff are going to have to work out rules themselves in just weeks. He’s going to have his hands full.”

After all the fuss in Congress, they have returned much responsibility to President Obama and his cabinet secretaries.