Pillars, Assurances & Priorities in Federal Ed Policy

DRAFT

A number of things have — makes me think it’s time to review where Obama’s team is on its ed policy.  Going back to the first days of Obama’s tenure, when he talked about ‘pillars.’ Then there were the  Assurances. And just last week, release in the Federal Register of the U.S. Department of Education’s priorities.

Where does early education fit in each of these?

First, regarding Obama’s pillars: early learning is on the table at least. Jacqueline Jones is in the Dept. More coordination than ever between HHS and Ed. Supported Head Start, and the office is making strides to improve quality with the release of its new technical assistance plan and the forthcoming release of recompetition guidelines, which we’ve been told should be released soon.  Disappointments? No ELCF. No money for expansion of high-quality programs. Race to the Top not having a competitive priority. i3 — yes, but ti’s unclear how much the reviewers understood what early learning really meant.

Speaking of RTTT, that’s one of the palces where teh four assurances show up. But it’s not the only one. They are also in xxx and xxx. (Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham wrote a blog post last week that I cannot let slip by.)

Then there are the priorities. List them here.

These are supposed to help the department. Early learning is one of the nine. Each department is to take a long look and see how their programs support these priorities. A helpful exercise.

But it’s funding that talks. What gets funded in the budget, which will probably be a CR for a while, will be instructive. States have been struggling (see my Q-and-A on Ed Week).