Funding Opportunities
By Pat Forbes, Education Liaison
patforbes@pitsco.com
The President’s proposed education budget gives stimulus for a
variety of responses, three of which are B words: butterfly, babel,
and baffle. One is to create a ripple effect that reverberates down
the line, another is to speak in an unknown tongue, and the last is
to flabbergast or confuse. Such was the outpouring of observations
on the education side.
There is a strong desire to restore the dedicated funding stream
for educational technology that was lost when the Enhancing
Education Through Technology (EETT) program was not funded
in the last federal budget. There is concern that without EETT
funding, the nation’s schools could fall even further behind
advancing nations’ educational systems. Will the Advanced
Research Projects Agency-Education (ARPA-ED), a new ed-tech
proposal by the President, adequately replace the EETT program?
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has noted that while
technology has transformed business and government around
the world, it has only slightly changed the way most US schools
operate. He has stated that “high-quality education is absolutely
critical to rebuilding our economy.”
The US Department of Education is requesting $69.8 billion in
discretionary funding for 2013, an increase of $1.7 billion or 2.5
percent from 2012. The butterfly, babel, and baffle revolve around
the methodology for spending the funds to accomplish the avowed
purposes enunciated in the budget. The administration has set a
goal of preparing more than 100,000 math and science teachers
and training a million additional science, technology, engineering,
and math (STEM) graduates over the next decade. A $100 million
investment is in the President’s budget for the National Science
Foundation (NSF) to improve undergraduate STEM education
practices, to help meet the administration’s goal of producing
those one million additional STEM graduates.
Enter the butterfly effect, which intimates that the
100,000 teachers will indeed translate into the million STEM
products (students). Pitsco Algebra curriculum has the wings
to alleviate math concerns while the technology education and
the methodology to transmit it to students are available in the
variety of Pitsco and LEGO® curricula that have demonstrated
and reinforced STEM learning. The companies’ robotics programs
are known internationally through LEGO® WeDo™ and
MINDSTORMS®, leading up to the Pitsco TETRIX® system and
curriculum. These programs teach and reinforce STEM while
fostering community building and self-esteem skills for students.
Babel revolves around the influence of the No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) program and the demands that the program
fostered. Currently, Race to the Top is the most recent
administration’s school reform program, and adding to the babel
is that at least 26 states have applied to be free of their NCLB
requirements. The question is, “Where does one program diminish
and the other begin after obvious gains from the preceding attempt
but a questionable finish line?”
Baffle enters as Congress suggests the limits and the avenues
of the educational expenditures recommended by the White House
and higher education seeks ways of creating courses to satisfy
the arrival of the one million STEM producers. It is assumed
the growth of technological educational expertise by teachers
should translate into improved student scores, raise graduation
rates, and achieve the individual learning programs that the
administration seeks. The achievement of these objectives will
justify the expenditure of Title I funds ($14.5 billion), Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act ($11.6 billion), School Improvement
Grants ($534 million), and funds for states and districts to improve
teacher quality ($5 billion).
Educators might choose to begin the quest for the envisioned
challenge by seeking butterfly economic assistance through the
grant sources noted on the facing page. The challenge is to not be
baffled by the babel that will surround the acceptance of all the
Congressional budgetary observations.