Ed tech unfunded in $1 trillion spending bill

Congress has passed a $1 trillion omnibus spending measure that continues funding for the Obama administration’s signature “Race to the Top” competition and includes a very modest increase in Title I funding for disadvantaged students. But an Obama proposal to create a new federal agency for ed-tech research and development received no funding in the bill.

The measure, which averted a possible government shutdown, funds 10 Cabinet agencies for fiscal year 2012. It awarded a slight increase to the Pentagon and veterans’ programs while trimming the budgets of most other domestic agencies. Democrats agreed to the cuts in exchange for dropping many policy provisions sought by GOP conservatives, such as attempts to block new rules aimed at preserving network neutrality and limiting greenhouse gases.