Category: Uncategorized

President Obama today announced that it was time to commit to tackling education reform and that he would allow states to apply for waivers that will give them flexibility from mandates under the ‘No Child Left Behind’ law that many officials agree is outdated and no longer effective.

The President stated that many states and school districts have initiated education reforms and innovations to support excellent teaching and encourage all students to learn and achieve success. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has since become a barrier to implementing these practices and reforms.

The goal is to support states and local school districts transitioning to college and career ready standards and assessments, developing systems of differentiated recognition, accountability, and support, and evaluating teacher and principal effectiveness and supporting improvement. For example, a state will no longer have to set a target requiring all students to be proficient by 2014, but instead be allowed to establish ambitious but achievable goals in reading/language arts and math. States and school districts under a waiver would also have more flexibility related to the use of federal education funds.

In order to receive a waiver a state must develop a rigorous and comprehensive plan addressing the critical areas that are designed to improve educational outcomes for all students, close achievement gaps and increase equity, and improve the quality of instruction.

Link to White House speech/press release

In light of a stalled and bleak economic recovery, President Obama is set to annouce an aggressive “Jobs” proposal in a speech before Congress tomorrow evening.

While officially unconfirmed by the White House, the package apparently contains approximately $300 billion worth of tax credits, school renovation projects, job training for the unemployed, and a program to prevent layoffs of school packages in an effort to jumpstart the economy and put many Americans back to work.

Although Obama has said that the jobs plan will include ideas that Republicans have historically supported, there has already been early skepticism voiced by members of the GOP and even some conservative democrats concerned that this will look too much like another stimulus package.

Timeline

August 16, 2011:  members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to be appointed.

September 16, 2011:  Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction must hold its first meeting.  

September 22, 2011:  Congress must consider a resolution of disapproval for first tranche ($900 billion) of debt limit increase.  

October 1-December 31, 2011:  the House and Senate must vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment.

October 14, 2011:  deadline for House and Senate committees to submit recommendations to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.

November 23, 2011:  deadline for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to vote on a plan with the goal (not a requirement) of $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction.   

December 2, 2011:  Joint Select Committee must submit report and legislative language to the President and Congress.

December 23, 2011:  Deadline for the House and Senate to vote on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction’s bill.     

January 15, 2012:  “trigger” date leading to $1.2 trillion of future spending cuts goes into effect, if the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction’s legislation has not been enacted. 

February 2012:  Approximately when the first $900 billion of debt ceiling increase runs out. 

February/March 2012:  in this period—15 days after the President uses his authority under the bill to increase the debt ceiling a second time—is the deadline for Congress to consider a resolution of disapproval for the second tranche ($1.2-$1.5 trillion) of debt limit increase.  

Fall/Winter 2012:  additional $2.1-$2.4 trillion of borrowing authority from this law runs out. 

January 2, 2013:  OMB orders sequestrations for defense and non-defense categories of spending necessary to meet spending cuts required by the “trigger.”

The National Science Foundation (NSF) on July 28 launched a new program to help develop basic scientific and engineering discoveries into new technologies, products, and processes.  The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program is a public-private partnership among the NSF, Kauffman Foundation, and Deshpande Foundation.  The goal of the program, according to the NSF press release, is to “connect NSF-funded scientific research with the technological, entrepreneurial and business communities to help create a stronger national ecosystem for innovation that couples scientific discovery with technology development and societal needs.”

 The I-Corps program will initially support 100 projects per year, at $50,000 per award.  The program places a $5,000 limit on facilities and administrative cost reimbursement for all I-Corps program recipients.

Each grant will support an I-Corps team, composed of a principal investigator, a mentor, and an entrepreneurial lead.  Over a period of six months, each team will determine what resources are needed to move research to the stage of technology development, as well as evaluate competing technologies and determine the value that the I-Corps-supported technology would add to the marketplace.  While I-Corps proposals will be evaluated using the standard merit review criteria approved by the National Science Board — Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts — they will also be evaluated on two additional criteria: the potential impact on the market and the time horizon to impact.

NSF anticipates investing $1.25 million of its FY 2011 appropriation in the I-Corps program.  The Foundation also expects to secure private investments for the program in FY 2011 and 2012. 

Read NSF’s press release here.