Funding Green

Think of education funding as a series of stepping stones laid into the soil to keep your feet from getting muddy or wet. The natural setting abounds and while walking along the path you hear the gentle sounds of nature. Ok, so maybe the stepping stones are suspended in the air like that scene from Indiana Jones when he takes the first step across the chasm that looks like he’s walking on air and around you are the shrill cries of warriors with their pointy objects decidedly aimed in your direction.

The landscape of education funding is changing from what I’ll call entitlement to one of competition. Competition isn’t a dirty word, after all, we’re a nation that thrives on setting a higher standard based on our past accomplishments and gazing over our shoulder with a ‘come hither’ look of challenge.

Arnie Duncan, our Secretary of Education, has mapped out a new way for us to think about funding our schools. This recent push started with the Race to the Top initiative and it’s continuing as he works with President Obama’s representatives to map out a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act. The current authorization that we’re guided by is called No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This legislation was groundbreaking for a number of reasons. I won’t get into a history lesson here, but suffice it to say, administrators actually started to worry about whether kids were learning something. That’s been a really good start.

So now, Secretary Duncan wants to take things a step further. He realizes that if we keep doing what we’ve always done we’ll get what we’ve always gotten. In his estimation, we’ve been giving money to the wrong people. When we give extra funds to schools that are failing, hoping that this will give them the resources to turn things around, we reflect lofty ideals, but we’ve forgotten something very important. The people in charge at those schools and districts often don’t have new ideas so they use the money to do more of the same. Most failing schools still aren’t rethinking the culture of learning and changing what they need to do in order to close the achievement gap.

Duncan’s new thinking is to give the money to schools and districts that are starting to improve already. They have made the giant leap to change and found initial support to overcome inertia. There’s a spark of success, building evidence toward program-wide improvement, so let’s take them to the next level with a little support. So we hear cries of “education is being cut.” Well, not entirely true. Funding is moving and we have to follow the money. Can you say “competitive grants”?

Recently I attended a conference in San Jose, California where Nelda Brown, Executive Director of the National Service-Learning Partnership spoke. She’s a breath of fresh air, and she was sharing her take on the D.C. buzz on education. She relayed a conversation on President Obama’s focus for education. She had four words for us: innovate, engage, solve, and scale. She’s sending out the magic words for grant writers everywhere to grasp. The money hasn’t gone away – it’s moved and as good hunters and gatherers, we have to change our strategies to get it.

Schools and districts need to think critically about how they do business and the programs they offer. If a program isn’t working, try something new. From the very beginning, think about how to take a pilot program to full scale – from the school to the district to the region and beyond. Programs should use student achievement data to know, not guess, where students are struggling. Use the research on how children learn and take full advantage of the skills staff brings to the work. Rejuvenate through the positive energy that naturally comes from real successes that can be measured and felt. Think about impact on student learning. Build capacity through mentorship between students and adults within and beyond the school.

The administration wants to see children engaged in their education. They are no longer passive vessels to be filled, but partners in their own learning with a voice and choice. They should be a part of solving real problems in their schools, communities and beyond. These solutions require them to use their writing, research, scientific and mathematical knowledge. The problems can be situated in any course and can take students beyond the classroom walls. This sounds a lot like service-learning.

This is leading to ideas like youth engagement zones that require partnerships between schools and communities to engage children where they are and when they need constructive activity so they stay in school.

So what does this have to do with being green? Create programs that engage students in solving real problems and take these solutions to scale. Sounds a lot like environmental education to me. Now jump to the next foot-stone. Which grant will you right to fund your program?