$1.3 Billion in Education Grants Released by U.S. Department of Education 

Key Highlights:

The U.S. Department of Education unveiled $1.3 billion of frozen funds for after-school programs.

Approximately 800,000 students of Arizona are the beneficiaries of this fund; one district received nearly $900,000 alone.

More than $5 billion of other federal education funds still hold withholdings with no deadline for disbursement.

Key Background:

Release of $1.3 billion in federal funds is a large, if incomplete, answer to mounting problem for teachers nationwide. At the start of the year, the U.S. Department of Education implemented review of several federal grant programs, suspending in the interim funds that would provide incentives for after-school education, teacher training, and English as a second language instruction for language learners. The review, it has been contended, was to consider the alignment of the program with national priorities and to measure their conformity with evolving education policy.

Among the most affected was the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers program that helps to fund after-school learning activities in poor communities. The schools depend on this grant to be able to continue to offer for the student's engagement in positive activities after school, essential to academic success, social development, and family well-being.

There are nearly 800,000 students registered for this program in Arizona alone. The Marana Unified School District, which received nearly $900,000 in the recent funding announcement, applies the grant to support its string of extended-day programs. They include homework support, STEM activities, and mentoring for students, particularly in Title I schools. The district was waiting with bated breath for whether core services would see it through next school year.

Even with this breakthrough, the overall funding environment remains precarious. Over $5 billion of federal education funding is on hold. This is for Title II (teachers' professional development) and Title III (aid to English language learners), both of which are crucial to districts with teacher shortages and multilingual student populations. In the Marana district alone, $440,000 tied to these programs is at stake.

The hold-up, which lasted for years, angered school administrators, who charge that the review process is transparent and unfairly burdens poor communities. Critics are also asking why the freeze was imposed, something some attribute to political criticism of the ideology and content of curricula and not education or budget performance.

As the next school year looms, districts are budgeting and making personnel decisions in a budget uncertainty mode. District administrators and teachers are pressuring federal officials to act quickly, reminding them that access to quality education for children should not be lost in the causality of delay.

Although the approval of the $1.3 billion is a positive development, it is widely regarded as at worst a pyrrhic victory. Full resolution will require urgency and transparency on the part of the Department of Education to release the withheld funds and bring stability to the education system.