The Echo

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/07/gop_proposes_unprecedented_flexibility_in_ed_spending.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

GOP Proposes Unprecedented Flexibility in Ed. Spending

By Alyson Klein on July 7, 2011 5:18 PM

States and districts would get unprecedented leeway to move around federal money under the latest in a series of bills to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. But the measure is already being decried by a top Democrat as a "backdoor" way to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and as an attack on students' civil rights.

The bill, introduced today by Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, envisions a very different role for the federal government when it comes to telling states and districts how to spend their money.

Instead of directing states and districts to spend a certain amount on a particular population—say, English-language learners—states and districts could move the dollars out of that program and spend them on a wide range of activities authorized under the ESEA (whose current version is No Child Left Behind).


That would mean that districts could, for instance, move all of the money out of Title I grants for disadvantaged students, and spend it on, say, professional development under the Teacher Quality State Grants program. States and districts would still be required to fulfill reporting requirements for all programs, even if they move all of the money out of them...


Go Here for the rest of the story including supporters and detractors:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/07/gop_proposes_unprecedented_flexibility_in_ed_spending.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

C&E 1st says:  If you are going to read just one story about a bill that is likely to go nowhere this year, this is it!