We've moved!

The TRI Director's News blog has moved to https://tridirectorsnews.wordpress.com.  Please visit us there!

Potential impact of sequestration on special education

Another report has been released detailing the possible impact of sequestration on special education services.  Not surprisingly, the significant cuts could impact over 500,000 students with disabilities, eliminate 12,000 educator jobs, and reduce the Special Education Grants to States/IDEA program.  For more information, click here.

 

Oregon Eligible for Federal Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Funds

The U.S. Departments of Education and Health & Human Services will be accepting revised applications from five states eligible for scaled down funding from the RTTT-ELC competition.  Oregon is one of the five states eligible for funding.  Oregon's resubmission will have to describe (1) the areas in which reductions and adjustments were made for the scaled down funding, and (2) explain any significant changes that have occurred since submitting the application last year.  The maximum funding available to Oregon is $20,508,902.  For more information, there is a good synopsis at First Five Years Fund (http://goo.gl/BqXfj).

More Sequestration Information from OMB

According to a new report released by the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), sequestration (the mandatory cuts slated to occur on January 2, 2013 unless Congress acts) will result in an 8.2 percent cut to non-defense discretionary spending.  An 8.2% decrease to the U.S. Department of Education is equivalent to a $4.1 billion decrease in funding.  The report notes, "Education grants to states and local school districts supporting smaller classes, after school programs, and children with disabilities would suffer."

The complete OMB report is available at http://goo.gl/U6elT.

Sequestration's Impact on Grant Funding

The Congressional Budget Office anticipates that cuts to education funding will be in the 7.8% range should Congress be unable to come to an agreement about postponing the automatic cuts set to take effect January 2, 2013.  Some legislators have expressed concern that the cuts could be as high as 17.6% if cuts to defense spending are exempted.  According to an article in Education Week, there is little agreement within Congress about the impact of the cuts on education.

Senator Tom Harkin, chair of the appropriations subcommittee on education, has developed a report detailing a state-by-state impact of sequestration on education, health and labor (the report can be found here).  Highlights include: Title I funding to districts decreased by $1.1 billion equaling a loss of 15,523 jobs.  Special education state grants cut by $900 million. School Improvement Grant program would be cut by $41 million eliminating 75 schools currently receiving these funds. 

Tech Innovations for Higher Education

The Chronicle of Higher Education has just published its first e-book entitled Rebooting the Academy: 12 Tech Innovators Who are Transforming Campuses.  The text describes how 12 significant tech innovators are changing how higher education research, teaching and management is delivered and viewed.  

Free access to taxpayer supported research

Access2Research, the advocacy group advocating for free access to journal articles arising from taxpayer funded research, has received enough signatures on its online petition to warrant a response from the White House.  The full wording of the petition can be found on the Access2Research website.