UPDATE: Hearing/vote may be next week, so just say upcoming hearing and vote…

As you know from earlier posts, California’s share of EETT ARRA money is in danger of being mis-spent. Tomorrow, a state Assembly sub-committee is going to hold hearings and vote on how to allocate that money. It is critical for those of us relying on that money for tech initiatives in our schools to contact committee members and ask them to release the funds following the same guidelines that have always been used for this program. The last plan was to divert funds from grade 4 – 8 classrooms, to a student information system for pre-K and High School work readiness, a clear violation of the funds guidelines from the federal government. Here is a page with the subcommittee members, please contact them ASAP:

http://www.cdcan.info/node/1153

Here is the letter I will be sending:

Dear Assemblyperson:

I am writing to you about the EETT C ARRA money for California schools that has not yet been released to the CDE. Here are highlights giving background:

• The state was awarded $71M in funding that could be used for either competitive grant awards to school districts, OR 1/2 for competitive awards and 1/2 for grants to districts based on Title 1 formula.

• The money is for Enhancing Education at the fourth to eighth grade level.

• A State may reserve up to 5 percent of its total FY 2009 Ed Tech allocation for State-level activities and must distribute the remaining amount (i.e., at least 95 percent of its total FY 2009 allocation) as follows: At least 50% up to a 100% Competitive Grants and up to 50% Formula Grants.

• The Ed Tech ARAA funds are subject to the same statutory and regulatory requirements as the Title II-D Ed, Tech funds made available under the regular FY 2009 appropriation and are also subject to specific ARRA accountability and reporting requirements.

• A State may award Ed Tech formula grant funds only to LEAs that receive funds under Part A of Title I.

• Districts have already sent in grant applications for the competitive money, and the CDE has graded them, they just haven’t released results due to the legislature not giving them funding authorization. This means that all the time and money expended was wasted.

• The Legislative Analyst is recommending that the state divert the money to a student records system for Pre-K and High School work readiness. This is not in line with the goals of EETT or the statutory guidelines governing this money.

What I would like is:

• To let you know that many educators and others involved in K-12 education technology are concerned that these funds have not been disbursed, and may be spent this in a way that wasn’t intended and does not follow federal guidelines;

• Your vote on at the Budget Subcommittee #2 Education hearing on this matter (scheduled for Tuesday 4/13 morning) to allocate the EETT funds as originally planned by the CDE and as it has been done in the past.

Stimulus funds were supposed to be spent rapidly. At this pace, we will be almost a year behind schedule on a two-year program.

Alice Mercer

Computer and Technology Teacher
Sacramento City Unified School District