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Secretary of education urges educators to remake schools with stimulus money

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 26, 2009 - During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama heard teachers, unions, and school districts argue that limited federal funding is preventing them from helping at-risk students become proficient in reading and math. The president's education secretary, Arne Duncan, says the administration is testing that hypothesis by pouring an unprecedented amount of money into Title 1 and other education programs to help these students and to improve schools in general.

The federal government already is spending $1.1 billion to improve failing schools. Thanks to stimulus funding, it is adding another $1.7 billion to the pot this fiscal year, and another $1.7 billion in the next fiscal year.

While no single district has found the solution to bringing at-risk students up to speed, Duncan hinted at things schools might do to make a difference.

The administration would look favorably, for example, on quality after-school programs, longer school days and Saturday classes, said Duncan, who has frequently mentioned that these are common practices in top performing schools in other countries. Good schools in other countries also have another 30 or 40 days in the school year and -- and don't dismiss kids at 2 in the afternoon.

Duncan said guidelines would be issued next week to help states decide how to spend their share of stimulus money. In a telephone interview with reporters on Wednesday, Duncan warned states, school districts and teachers not to blow what he says is an unprecedented opportunity to remake schools, especially those serving at-risk students. Districts that don't improve will lose federal dollars, he warned.

"A state that simply invests in the status quo will put itself at a disadvantage in getting additional funds," he said. "There's an opportunity for states to use their dollars differently. Just filling in holes isn't going to get us where we need to go."

Districts with innovative school improvement programs could also be rewarded with extra funding from a $5 billion pot of money, called the Race to the Top fund, Duncan said.

In Missouri, some of this year's money will help districts avoid laying off teachers in science, math and others areas critical to maintaining or improving student performance. But Missouri school officials have yet to decide how to spend the extra Title 1 funds. Nor has anyone talked about how the state will prevent districts from spending their share on programs that don't improve school performance.

Presumably this money will be a boon to the St. Louis school system and other districts not making adequate progress on the MAP test as they are required to do under the No Child Left Behind law. The goal of this law, set up during the Bush administration, is to make all students proficient in reading and math by the end of the 2013 school year.

Just about everybody agrees the law isn't coming close to doing that. Some frustrated educators and parents wanted the Obama administration to scrap the law. He has chosen instead to try to strengthen it, partly through additional federal funding.

Duncan says federal and state officials should be on guard for waste in the new funding; he also called on parents, the media and others to remain vigilant for transparency in the way the money is spent.

Robert Joiner has carved a niche in providing informed reporting about a range of medical issues. He won a Dennis A. Hunt Journalism Award for the Beacon’s "Worlds Apart" series on health-care disparities. His journalism experience includes working at the St. Louis American and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he was a beat reporter, wire editor, editorial writer, columnist, and member of the Washington bureau.