Find Funding for Your Classroom
Posted on September 26th, 2012 by Mary Lord
Tired of digging into your pocket because your school’s shoestring budget won’t stretch to cover materials or equipment? A new grant-finding site offers a free, searchable database – updated daily – of more than 600 grants and other funding opportunities culled from federal, state, regional, and community sources.
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Tags: Contest, funding, getedfunding.org, grants, Resources for Teachers, School Budgets, Teacher Resources, Web Resources
Pinched state coffers are prompting elected officials nationwide to rethink how their states spend money on education. Some, including Idaho, contemplate increases in class size. Indiana has proposed allowing college-ready high school juniors to graduate early.
In the ongoing push to fix America’s public schools, policymakers are overlooking principals, argues New York Times Columnist Andrew J. Rotherham. He says principals should come under closer scrutiny, and they “play a critical role” in education, but are “evaluated almost as an afterthought.”
According to a new report released by the Center for Public Education, school districts across the U.S. are laying off teachers, cutting programs, and eliminating student activities because of the ongoing fiscal squeeze created by the recession. Only two states — Montana and North Dakota — do not face revenue shortfalls this year.
The eleven states and the District of Columbia, which won the Race to the Top competition, will divvy up a prize of $4 billion in federal education grants. But the ultimate winner may be STEM education. All the winning states have plans to bolster STEM subjects and to fully integrate them into their future K-12 education reforms.
With a new school year started and the White House pushing for school reform, a look at past reforms reveals little positive change. Why haven’t they worked? Will this attempt be any different? Student motivation may hold a clue.
How is Tennessee, one of two first round winners of the Race to the Top competition, spending its $501 million? $37 million is earmarked for creating innovative new ways of teaching STEM subjects. The state will use at least five test schools, including troubled Stratford High School in Nashville, to test the programs before other districts adopt them.
A growing number of teachers are moving beyond the classroom and into the main office. Teacher-led schools have recently opened in Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. Districts are taking a chance on these grassroots experiments to see if teachers themselves can turn around troubled schools. 
In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama’ outlined plans to boost federal education spending. The administration says it will seek to boost the Department of Education’s budget by $4 billion. 
