ISTE is asking bloggers, like myself, to share the word about keeping funding for ed tech in the federal education budget. Here is what is happening…

As part of the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (which became known as NCLB — No Child Left Behind), the current administration is proposing the direct funding of education technology be eliminated. Why do we need separate funding specifically for education technology?

1. The administration, the public, and all of us, would like to see students prepared for 21st century workplaces. This requires that they have access to and use technology in the classroom now;
2. Without dedicated money, efforts to use technology in classrooms will be hit and miss, instead of concentrated, wide-spread, and effective;
3. In these tough fiscal times, states will not be able to “pick up the slack” in federal funding. Some states (like mine) have relied solely on these federal programs for education technology expenditures in recent years.

What are we asking for? Support funding the EETT or successor program to at least $500 million in the FY11 U.S. Department of Education appropriations.

Please do one or more of the following:

• Blog about this;
• tweet this link:
  http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Advocacy/EETT_Background__fy_11.pdf, or
  http://bit.ly/beFsaH