Dive Brief:
- A group of Senators and Representatives have signed a letter asking Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) negotiators to “establish a standalone program for education technology and technology-specific professional development for educators.”
- The I-TECH program of the Every Child Achieves Act, the Schools of the Future Provision of the Student Success Act, and the Scott Substitute Amendment were singled out in the letter as a component “crucial to the success of education technology” in the new ESEA rewrite, especially for poor students in rural areas with less access to ed tech.
- A "maintenance of effort" provision — which mandates that 90% of district spending each year has to equal what the district spent the previous fiscal year, or else funding is decreased — is also under debate, Education Week reports.
Dive Insight:
Education Week calls the maintenance of effort provision “a highly technical provision they see as a safeguard for ensuring money earmarked for the nation's most disadvantaged students is used as originally intended.” The clause in question is not included in the ESEA rewrite passed earlier this year by the House of Representatives.
Advocates say the provision is aimed at helping the nation’s most economically disadvantaged students, while opponents say it drives a wedge between states and districts. And as Education Week reports, it might also complicate necessary changes in K-12 finance and policy.
