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Wednesday, February 8, 2012
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As I reported last week, a group of 33 after-school programs in Maine will have to trim their budgets by a third next school year as a result of the Maine Department of Education promising more federal grant money than it could afford.
The budget trimming that will have to happen — which will reduce the number of sites where 21st Century Community Learning Center programs operate and the number of students they're able to serve — is a consequence of what Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, called grant "mismanagement."
The funding cut hits 17 of the programs in their third year and 16 of them in their second year of the five-year grant program. The grant is supposed to help local after-school programs get started, then wind down the federal funding obligation to 75 percent in the fourth year and 60 percent in the fifth year. After that, local funds would, ideally, step in to keep the programs going.
But in the same letter that informed program directors of the grant's overexpenditure, the Maine Department of Education warned the directors that their federal funding might not even last the full five-year length.
That's a consequence of the pending reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in Congress.
"All indications from the (U.S. Department of Education) suggest the 21st CCLC funding will, in fact, end in their (sic) current form and then be sent back out to states through a competitive process in a way similar to the Race to the Top application," David Stockford, the Maine Department of Education's special services team leader, wrote. "It is not clear what this means for grantees currently in a grant cycle."
The grant currently targets students in low-income communities measured by eligibility for free and reduced-price lunches and eligibility for federal Title I funds. The grants also target communities that have low-performing schools.
In the coming years, a competitive element could be added, and Maine could end up with a new batch of after-school programs in new locations or, perhaps, fewer Maine programs altogether.
Archives
- Rewriting No Child Left Behind: What to expect
- Recurring themes, fresh outlook on education
- National pressure on Maine to allow charters
- The debate on administration, and the latest on the top administrator
- Private funding for "student-centered" learning
- Landing on the staff, not in the cabinet
- Education and the inauguration
- Home schooling, education jobs and Social Security: An education roundup
- A change in circumstances, and a change of heart
- Tonight, students challenge the candidates
- MEA's endorsement and Mitchell
- Worries of the administrative realm
- What's next for Maine students' Social Security numbers?
- Paying for performance, indirectly
- Beyond pay incentives
- Will there be evaluation momentum?
- Same SAT scores. Same questionable comparison?
- It had to be asked sooner or later
- Short of completely empty, and a chance to influence
- UPDATE: Fact-checking Paul LePage, and Common Core's tangled web
- How much and when?
- Zeroing in on "value added"
- Sierra Club: Maine has 3 "Cool Schools"
- Maine joining SSN ranks. Will parents go along?
- Some loose ends tied this week in Maine education
- Six in Maine go for i3
- A steeper cliff after EduJobs
- MEA and the favorable incumbents; updates to a data repository
- One federal pot out of reach, another in flux
- Ed Week: Maine's Race to the Top fate will be known tomorrow
- New graduation rates released, little gained so far
- An updated student-teacher ratio, and updated inconsistencies
- Reformist v. status quo, and a tempering force
- Could Race to the Top shrink?
- Midcoast project earns "pilot project" designation
- What the heck is Maine's student-teacher ratio?
- UPDATED: MEA announces it's Mitchell. Anyone surprised?
- On buy-in, below average
- Initial thoughts on a LePage v. Mitchell match-up
- Innovations that don't fit the national mold: Maine and Race to the Top
- Performance-based evaluations from the bottom up
- Choice phrasing in Race to the Top
- Breaking down buy-in
- For after-school programs, a risk apart from grant bungling
- Building buy-in: Maine at 68 for 215 and 14 for 55
- Choosing the evaluation panel's future
- Maine is in Race to the Top running
- Is MEA warming to Race to the Top?
- UPDATED: Will the budget referendum stay in place?
- Who knew? Department of Education stands in liberty's way
- Bold approaches beyond pilot-project phase
- Not down to 80, but getting closer
- Baldacci claiming credit where it's undue
- Not only plagiarism from Otten, but a lack of facts
- A tiff of irony, a question of purpose, and the administrators' absence
- Teacher evaluation catch-up and the would-be's on education
- A big week in Maine education
- 'Conversations' amid shadows
- A barrier comes down? A few more thoughts
- UPDATE: Sticking to the 'poison pill'
- UPDATE: Amended bill wouldn't do the trick
- UPDATE: More than Race to the Top hangs in the balance
- Hanging in the balance
- Evaluating teachers? Choose from one of the following
- Highlights from the data drop
- What do Delaware and Tennessee mean to Maine?
- 'A personal journey for next generation learners'
- Channeling consolidation's energy in Hancock County
- Innovating within existing infrastructure
- A model charter school law
- Preparing for another charter schools battle
- Will Maine stand a chance in Race to the Top?
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