Tracking Education Stimulus Spending

Blog

Deadline Passed to Spend Stimulus Dollars

Education Week's Michele McNeil provides a terrific explainer on how several states still have a lot of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars to spend, even though the deadline to "obligate" them was Sept. 30. Several states have a combined total of $2.28 billion left to use, McNeil writes. Among ...

By: Lori Crouch :: Oct. 12, 2011 11:37 a.m.

School Improvement Also Needs Time, GAO Report on Grants Concludes

How much improvement can you make at a failing school when you only have a month or two to plan and implement your reform? Not too much, at least in six states, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released July 25 about the federal School Improvement Grants program,which ...

By: Lori Crouch :: July 29, 2011 3:59 p.m.

Reducing the Amount of Money Spent on Special Ed

What happens to special education when federal stimulus dollars run out?IDEA Money Watch, a watchdog group that monitors special ed expenditures, including Recovery Act funds, fears that school districts could begin to cut back their spending in the coming year. And it has reason to.In 2009, schools districts were allowed ...

By: Lori Crouch :: July 18, 2011 noon

GAO Sizes Up States' Race to Top Work

The Government Accountability Office has published a progress report on Race to the Top, the U.S. Department of Education's highest-profile competitive grant program funded by the economic stimulus law. (Hat tip to Ed Money Watch over at the New America Foundation, which has an informative post summarizing the report.) The ...

By: Caroline Hendrie :: July 12, 2011 5:35 p.m.

First Quarter Data Reveal States Have Spent 75% of Stimulus Funds

New federal data compiled on EdMoney.org, EWA's stimulus-tracker website, show that cumulatively, the 50 states and the District of Columbia have spent 74.82 percent of their funding for education from the 2009 economic stimulus law.As of the end of April 2011, 28 states had reported spending 75 percent or more ...

By: Matthew Waite :: May 11, 2011 2:03 p.m.

Latest links

Oregon School District Walks Away from $2.5 Million Federal Grant

The Oregon City School District has decided to reject a $2.54 million federal grant meant to reward top educators, partly because of philosophical concerns over performance-based pay. Nicole Dungca, The Oregonian, Oct. 23, 2011

Posted Oct. 25, 2011 9:56 a.m.

School Budget Cuts: Educators Fear Deepest Cuts Are Ahead

Educators are bracing for a tough reality: As difficult as budget cuts have been on schools, more tough times are likely ahead. Already, an estimated 294,000 jobs in the education sector have been lost since 2008, including those in higher education. Kimberly Hefling, Huffington Post, Oct. 24, 2011

Posted Oct. 24, 2011 5:10 p.m.

Wyoming Seeks to Extend Stimulus Funding

Nearly $3.2 million remains from the federal stimulus boost Wyoming public schools received in early 2010, and state officials want more time to spend it. The Wyoming Department of Education plans to request a waiver to expend stimulus money past the Sept. 30 deadline. Jackie Borchardt, Casper Star-Tribune, Oct. 23, 2011

Posted Oct. 24, 2011 9:58 a.m.

Recovery Act Funding Retained Teachers But Monitoring Communication Could Improve

About 4 percent of the obligated American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds remain available for expenditure. Teacher retention was the primary use of Recovery Act education funds according to GAO’s nationally representative survey of school districts. The funds also allowed recipients to restore state budget shortfalls and maintain or increase services. However, the expiration of funds and state budget decreases may cause districts to decrease services, such as laying off teachers. GAO, Sept. 22, 2011

Posted Sept. 23, 2011 3:22 p.m.

School of Hard Financial Knocks

Two years after the first stimulus dollar rolled in, Florida’s public school system is learning difficult financial lessons. School districts throughout Florida are laying off teachers, closing programs and scrambling to identify other significant cost-saving measures — all problems made worse by the fact that Florida’s school districts used the stimulus money in large measure to delay needed cuts. Mc Nelly Torres, Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, Sept. 21, 2011

Posted Sept. 21, 2011 4:03 p.m.

Data

Our database is yours – have fun!

EdMoney now has the most up-to-date numbers on how fast school districts are spending their federal stimulus dollars. Our database includes state stabilization funds, Title I and IDEA supplemental grants, as well as other miscellaneous awards. It is believed to be the only site that offers district-by-district breakdowns of education stimulus grants nationwide.

The data is linked to the federal Common Core of Data, so you can even match your districts to others of similar size.

We're now aggregating links, blog posts and data on stimulus money flowing to states and districts around the U.S. We're adding more all the time, more links, more data, more everything.

Now comes your part: Can you help us? Do you know something about how stimulus was used in your state or – more importantly – your district? Register and contribute! Tell us what you know, small or large. Find your state or district and help us track one of the largest infusions of federal money into local education in history.

A project of