Duncan wants stimulus to transform schools

President Barack Obama and his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, want to do more than save teachers' jobs or renovate classrooms with the new economic recovery law. They're hoping to reinvent education for the 21st century--while transforming the federal government's role in public education in the process. Public schools will get an unprecedented amount of money--nearly double the education budget of this past year--from the stimulus bill in the next two years. With those dollars, Obama and Duncan want schools to do better. The bill includes a $5 billion fund solely for these innovations, an amount that might not seem like much, considering the bill's $787 billion price tag. But it is massive compared with the $16 million in discretionary money that Duncan's predecessors got each year for their own priorities. Congress laid out broad guidelines for the fund in the stimulus bill that became law on Feb. 17. But it will be up to Duncan and the team of advisers he is assembling to decide how to dole out the money. They have until Oct. 1, when the next fiscal year begins, to start distributing the dollars. What would the fund pay for? Rewarding states and school districts that are making big progress--and showcasing these entities and their reforms as models for others to follow. To get the money, states will have to show they are making good progress in five areas: 1) Boosting teacher effectiveness and getting more good teachers into high-poverty, high-minority schools; 2) Setting up data systems to track how much a student has learned from one year to the next; 3) Improving academic standards and tests; 4) Supporting struggling schools; and 5) Partnerships with nonprofit groups.