Reassurance Needed

In addition to fully funding NCLB, the stimulus bill includes a gargantuan $54 billion fiscal stabilization fund for education. In many ways this money is best understood as not education-related at all, but simply a politically palatable way for the federal government to prevent pro-cyclical state and local budget cuts that would accelerate the current economic death spiral. If you have to choose public employees to not lay off, in other words, teachers are (delusions of magical poverty-driven school reform notwithstanding) a pretty good choice. They're not "government bureaucrats," they often play an outsized role in their local communities, there are a lot of them, most people feel pretty good about spending public money on education, etc.

Most of the fund is in a big general pot. States have to apply for this money, which is mostly a formality since the funds will be disbursed using a pre-established population-based formula, and there is exactly no chance whatsoever that state applications will be turned down. Given the gravity of the economic situation, even something like Illinois voters amending their state constitution to anoint Rod Blagojevich governor-for-life shouldn't be disqualifying. Heck, bribe money probably gets into the economic bloodstream as fast as anything.

Nonetheless, there are a few policy-related items in the stabilization fund section of the law. For example, in submitting the sure-to-be-accepted applications, state have to provide "assurances" of the following:

• They will give K-12 and higher education (calculated separately) at least as much money in 2009, 2010, and 2011 as they did in 2006.
• They will establish longitudinal data systems to link up various student, school, university and teacher records. 
• They will improve their standards and tests. 
• They will support struggling schools
• They will, and here I quote directly, "comply with the requirements of paragraphs (3)(C)(ix) and (6) of section 1111(b) of the ESEA (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)) and section 612(a)(16) of the IDEA (20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(16)) related to the inclusion of children with disabilities and limited English proficient students in State assessments, the development of valid and reliable assessments for those students, and the provision of accommodations that enable their participation in State assessments" as well as "comply with section 1111(b)(8)(C) of the ESEA (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(8)(C)) in order to address inequities in the distribution of highly qualified teachers between high- and low-poverty schools, and to ensure that low-income and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers."

In other words, in order to get the stimulus money, states have to assure the Department of Education that they will comply with federal laws that were enacted over seven years ago. Readers unfamiliar with the actual nature of federalism in the United of States of America might assume that compliance with the law is one of those things that are just kind of assumed and don't require additional bribes and written reassurances, but in the real world implementation of federal statute is much more a matter of negotiation. States have systematically chosen to ignore the above provisions with no real consequences, which unfortunately serves to highlight the generally toothless nature of the "assurance" process, in that it has less weight than the explicit statutes states have contravened. If history is any guide, the states will, in putting their applications together, cut and paste the above text out of the law, insert the words "We will" in front of each section, cash the checks, and be done. I would love to be wrong about this. 

Much more promising is the $5 billion "State Incentive Grant" portion of the stabilization fund. That's still a lot of money, even in the present depressingly grand scheme of things. Because the states are broke, they will all apply for the money, and there will be a lot of pressure on Secretary of Education Duncan to disburse the funds in the much same way as the big pot of stabilization money: proportional to size, so everyone gets their "fair" share, and subject only to a set of vague and infinitely malleable reassurances. But as I read the statute, he has a great deal of discretion to be much more inventive and forward-looking in deciding who gets how much money and establishing bright lines in terms of eligibility and use of funds. Done right, the process could be the launching pad for a terrific multi-year agenda.