Changes in federal role, funding continue under Obama

by Katherine Saviskas

Even though the federal role in education is the subject of constant attention, until recently the federal government's contribution to all the money spent on K-12 schooling in the United States has been pretty small—only about 8 percent.

Yet, since the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) during the George W. Bush administration, federal influence has had a profound and unprecedented impact on what happens inside schools and classrooms.

That influence shows no sign of waning in the Obama administration. In fact, the impact of federal aid and Washington-driven policies is increasing under Obama.

On top of boosting the amount of recurring federal aid, the administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided an enormous one-time infusion of education dollars equivalent to around a year’s worth of education expenditures. The stimulus funds caused the 2009-2010 federal share of education spending to surge to 10.5 percent.

Like most cities with high percentages of low-income students, Philadelphia gets a higher percentage of money from federal aid than the average. But under Obama, that share has dramatically increased from its usual range of 10 to 12 percent to 21 percent last year and 23 percent this year.

Most of this surge is due to stimulus dollars, including those from the recent Education Jobs Bill that Obama signed on September 13. And while welcome now, it may present the District with a problem down the road. “Either we will have recurring revenues that replace the non-recurring stimulus revenues….or we’re going to have to cut spending,” said Michael Masch, the District’s chief financial officer.

Beyond the stimulus, Obama and his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, are using federal dollars to leverage change. They have taken the philosophy of the Bush administration and NCLB to a new level by distributing some $4 billion in aid to states through a competition called Race to the Top (RttT). The money was awarded this year to 12 states, based on their willingness to adopt specific reforms favored by the administration.

While Pennsylvania did not win either of the two rounds of RttT, from the beginning it has been enthusiastic about adopting reforms promoted by the Obama administration.

“Pennsylvania seems to have made the decision right from the get-go that it was going to take an uncritical view of Race to the Top and look at it as a funding opportunity and embrace the policy initiatives,” said James “Torch” Lytle, a professor at the Graduate School of Education of the University of Pennsylvania and a former administrator in Philadelphia.

Especially regarding the turnaround of low-performing schools, the reform approaches of Ackerman and the SRC, were fundamentally in sync with the RttT priorities.

“Philadelphia is a leading case as a city that has embraced all of these policy initiatives,” Lytle said. Besides Renaissance Schools, the aggressive school turnaround initiative, he cited a large network of charter schools and unprecedented accountability provisions in its latest contract with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

Seven Renaissance Schools have been converted to charters and another six given makeovers as Promise Academies under the District. In all those schools, a majority of the staff were replaced, and nearly all have new principals.

But, in the RttT competition, Pennsylvania did not take high-profile state-level actions specifically designed to enhance its chances, like passing legislation on charter schools or teacher compensation.

Pennsylvania qualified for $400 million under RttT, and was a finalist in both rounds. If the state had won, the money would have cushioned the blow of losing the stimulus dollars. Philadelphia alone was in line for some $100 million of RttT money.