Remember the education stimulus?
This graph shows the major categories of stimulus funding allocated to Michigan public schools. Schools have until 2011 to spend their allocations in many cases, so the chart does not reflect actual spending to date. The numbers also do not include higher education or Pell Grants to individual college students.
Back in the early, heady days of 2009, President Barack Obama
made headlines across the country by announcing he would pump $100 billion into
public education for two reasons: jobs and reform.
"We know our schools don't just need more resources; they
need more reform," he told Congress in February 2009.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was expected to bring
about that reform. The cash windfall would allow schools to try new teaching
methods, figure out how to evaluate teachers and principals, begin to use test data
wisely, and finally do something about failing schools.
Will "small schools" improve test scores? Use stimulus funds
to find out. Extended school day? Online classes? Merit pay experiments? The
stimulus will pay. Hiring people for all that innovation was expected to boost student
achievement and create jobs as well.
That's not how things turned out in Michigan. Rather than "extra"
dollars, most stimulus cash went to fill holes in Michigan's own education budget,
leaving overall school funding essentially unchanged in 2008-2009 and slightly
lower in 2009-2010.
Reports on how schools have used the stimulus money to date
show that most of the money has gone to retain existing teaching jobs and
programs.
The reform side of "jobs-and-reform" may still happen, but,
ironically, Michigan is likely to see more change brought about by its efforts
to secure $500 million in "Race to the
Top" funds than it will from the more than $1 billion that the state received
without having to compete.
One exception may be stimulus money targeted at
disadvantaged and special needs students. Those smaller pockets of money are
being used more frequently for professional development or short-term tutoring
aimed at raising student achievement in the long run, according to interviews
with school administrators.
STABILIZATION DOLLARS
Of all the education stimulus dollars allocated to Michigan,
the $1.16 billion called "State Fiscal Stabilization Funds" is by far the largest
slice of the pie. While those funds can be used for any activity allowed under
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, about 80 percent of Michigan school
districts have used the bulk of their share so far to retain teachers,
according to a December report from the General Accounting Office.
Michigan's own report showed that, as of Sept. 30, schools
reported about 12,545 jobs "created or retained" with stabilization dollars.
Some districts also reported using the money for infrastructure or to pay
various vendors. As of Dec. 31, the state reported 9,222 education jobs
"created or retained." (Federal guidelines on calculating jobs numbers changed
from September to December, making direct comparisons of the two reports invalid,
according to the state.)
While the stabilization funding has helped, to say that it has
kept schools at status quo is a misnomer, Paw Paw Public Schools Superintendent
Mark Bielang told Michigan Education Report. Bielang currently is president of
the American Association of School Administrators.
"We aren't going to be anywhere near status quo," he said.
Bielang is referring to the fact that, even after Michigan
used stabilization dollars to fill holes in the state education budget in 2009
and 2010, public school districts in Michigan this year will receive $165 less
per student from the state. That number affects districts differently,
depending on enrollment gains or losses.
"It's difficult to implement innovation and reform when
funding levels are cut or flat-lined and the stimulus dollars are simply
filling budget holes," Bielang said in e-mailed comments to Michigan Education
Report.
In a national survey conducted by AASA in October, nearly
half of school administrators said that there weren't enough stimulus dollars
to both create jobs and improve education. The survey clearly points out that,
when decisions had to be made, saving teacher jobs was the top priority.
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26 percent of respondents said their district used
stimulus funds to save all core-subject teaching positions slated for
elimination;
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33 percent said their district saved some, but not all,
core-subject teaching positions slated for elimination;
Like many educators, Bielang believes that retaining
teachers has a large effect on student achievement, given that the alternative
would be layoffs and larger class sizes.
To some extent, Michigan school districts had little choice
of how to spend the first wave of stabilization dollars. When it became
apparent in July 2009 that the state would not have enough tax revenue to fund
the 2008-2009 school aid budget, legislators cut the budget retroactively by
$370 per student but immediately filled the hole with stabilization funds.
Since they had to account for that money separately, most school districts
reported spending it to retain teachers.
In October, stabilization funds again filled holes in the
2009-2010 state education budget, bringing down an anticipated $450-per-pupil
cut to $165.
"They said, 'We're
going to take this money from you and then we're going to give you the money
back,'" Dr. Eugene Cain, principal of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Academy in
Lansing, told Michigan Education Report.
"We thought we were going to get really truly extra money,"
Diane Block, assistant superintendent for operations in the Alpena Public
Schools, told Michigan Education Report. Once districts learned that funding
levels would not increase, she said, "As far as the reform piece, that kind of
fell by the wayside."
"It was basically used for programming that had already been
completed," said Lisa Freiburger, chief financial officer in Grand Rapids
Public Schools, of the stimulus funding allocated to schools in July. However,
the alternative would have been a $370 per-student reduction, she pointed out.
"There were significant cuts we didn't have to make last
year," Freiburger said.
TITLE I AND SPECIAL EDUCATION
The story changes when schools discuss stimulus money
allocated through Title I — the federal program for "at-risk" students — and the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for special education students.
The dollar amounts in these programs are significantly
smaller than those in the stabilization, totaling about $390 million for Title
I and about $427 million for three special education grant programs. However,
since the funds were allocated on top of each district's normal Title I and
special education allotment, they do represent "extra" spending money.
A number of Michigan districts are using the Title I and
IDEA money for targeted professional development, teacher "coaches," after
school programs or other programs whose academic benefits they hope will remain
after the stimulus money is spent. In all, Michigan reported about 1,100
"created or retained" jobs through these programs.
"The reform for us would be on the Title I side," Shabazz
Academy's Cain said. The charter public school used the extra Title I funding
to contract with six part-time tutors to work with struggling students, Cain said,
as well as a second reading specialist.
"The funding (for those positions) will sunset with the
stimulus," Cain said.
In Alpena, Block said that Title I funds are paying for
kindergarten classroom aides whose jobs otherwise would have been eliminated.
"It's a godsend to be able to continue to have them," she
said. "They (kindergarteners) need a lot of time on task and a lot of
assistance. I don't know what we're going to do when that's gone."
In the Huron Intermediate School District, stimulus funds
will help pay to train teacher coaches to work with classroom teachers on
specific practices that help students learn.
"The research tells us that in order to change practice in
classrooms, by far the most effective way is to bring coaches into the
classroom," HISD Superintendent Janet Richards told Michigan Education Report.
The coaches are part of a larger student achievement effort
that also includes assessing students three times a year in math, reading and
writing; identifying struggling students and developing intervention programs,
according to Peggy Randall, director of general education.
The Student Achievement Model was already in place before
the stimulus was announced, but the additional money "is allowing us to ramp up
those efforts," Richards said.
Grand Rapids Public Schools also is spending Title I money
on professional development, including developing teacher leaders and coaches;
supplemental materials for students; technology and, to a smaller degree,
after-school programs.
"We were specific not to bring in things that couldn't be
sustained" after the stimulus funding runs out, Freiburger said.
Improving teacher quality is one of the key goals of the
education stimulus, along with raising academic standards, improved use of
assessment data, and tracking student achievement from preschool through
college.
FLEXIBILITY
As a Michigan school superintendent and as president of a
national administrator organization, Bielang said there is a need for flexibility
in spending stimulus funds.
Title I and IDEA money can only be spent on programs or
services that fit in those program guidelines, and while professional
development and new technology may be laudatory, Bielang said some districts
would have chosen other uses if possible.
"The more restrictive the dollars, the more difficult it is
to effect change," Bielang said.
In Paw Paw, "there are several positions we have left
unfilled that have increased class sizes," he said, but the district could not
use Title I or IDEA funds to fill those slots.
"Clearly, IDEA and Title I will help us provide supplemental
services for eligible students," Freiburger said of Grand Rapids' situation,
but "with what we're facing now, we're going to be hard pressed to provide
basic services."
Another issue is that, even though Title I and Title II
money is intended to help struggling students by giving them supplemental
services, it can give the appearance of creating "haves" and "have nots" in a
district, Block said. To be eligible for Title II funds, the district must
limit class size to 17 in the classrooms where the funds will be used, she
pointed out. When the general education classroom averages 26 students, "It's
hard to justify that to parents."
RACE TO THE TOP
Ironically, while Michigan will spend about $1.1 billion in
stabilization dollars on public schools, the education reform that President
Obama called for is more likely to come about by the state's efforts to obtain a
smaller amount — about $500 million in "Race to the Top" funds.
"Race to the Top" is a competitive program — only a handful
of states are expected to receive any of the $4 billion prize. To win a share,
Michigan is proposing to adopt national academic standards developed jointly by
states, as well as use the accompanying national assessments. The state application
also promises to improve teacher and principal quality by using student
academic growth as one measure of teacher and principal performance as well as
by improving professional development.
It also will work with selected "demonstration districts" that
will implement change themselves, then potentially become statewide models for
reform. Called "Project
ReImagine," the demonstration models will move ahead with or without Race
funding.
Further, Michigan pledges to turn around low-achieving
schools by identifying and intervening in those schools. Finally, it will
guarantee that all of those reforms are backed by local school districts that choose
to participate. As of last week, about 700 conventional and charter public school
districts in Michigan had signed off on the ideas, though only 40 of those
agreements included approval by local teachers union leaders.
Just to submit the application, Michigan needed the state
Legislature to sign off on laws that will allow alternative teacher
certification, link student test data to individual teachers and create more
charter schools. Those laws will remain in effect regardless of whether
Michigan wins the "Race."
In discussion about the state's application at a state board
of education meeting, board member Nancy Danhof said that Race to the Top has
become an opportunity to leverage change in Michigan education.
"It's the right thing to do for children," she said.
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Lorie Shane is the managing editor of the Michigan Education Report, the Mackinac Center’s education policy journal. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that Michigan Education Report is properly cited.