Show me the money (and where it's going)!

Several days have passed swiftly since I last sat down to write. We are finishing our nine weeks exams and are moving into the home stretch for the school year. I feel so bogged down and am ready to start afresh after our long weekend break.

What is it about springtime that makes my mind begin to float in a fog? Probably pollen. We have an abundance here in South Georgia; my car was covered in yellow dust today. Actually, I believe that teaching is so demanding physically and mentally that after seven months of pushing students to do more than they think they can, teachers find themselves in a place where they have to dig deep to endure.

Yesterday, I received an email from a textbook rep with whom I've had conversations about two different reading programs her company offers. Just as a good salesperson should, she addressed my budget concerns by pointing out how much money my school system would receive from the federal stimulus package. These funds are Title I and IDEA funds. I didn't realize that our federal government already knows how much each public school system in all states will receive from the package. By no means is our system receiving the amount of money like a Cobb County in metro Atlanta or Richmond County near Savannah, but the amount of money set aside for my system was significant. And we can use 15% of the special education funds for purchases for RTI.

My main concern is that our school officials do not see this as fluff money but an opportunity to fund programs that really improve student achievement. Even administrators and educators need to practice their new media skills--we are bombarded with so much information from companies (legitimate or otherwise) who want to make a profit in the field of education. Not every idea that comes along should be considered, much less acted upon. Sometimes I feel like someone is placing a band aid over my bleeding sore and ripping it off daily just to reapply a different band-aid without seeing if the first one would work. Many of the ideas bandied about are nothing more than what teachers were doing twenty years ago under a different name with prettier packaging. For those who are interested in finding their own system's funding from the stimulus, visit the government website that has a breakdown of what each school will receive in Title I funding and IDEA funding.