A year ago, in 2010, 2the
U.S. Department of Education gave $650 million to non-profit organizations such as colleges, universities and 49 school districts for entrepreneurial ideas to improve education. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Education announced that only $150 million is available for the same purposes.
Almost 1,700 groups applied for the grants in 2010. Jim Shelton, assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement, claims that the number of applicants will increase this summer. Actually, the innovation is planned to be targeted in such areas as science, technology, engineering and math learning. Support for prominent teachers, implementation of high standards and quality test are to be realized.
Jim Shelton mentioned in his
essay : "There's a tremendous pent-up demand in the field to share innovations that people feel have national implications".
This year grants of $25 million (compared to $50 million in 2010) is given to education programs with a chosen track record; grants of $15 million ($30 million in 2010) for developing a program that gives evidences of success; grants of $3 million ($5 million in 2010) for creating promising ideas for education).
If the program had not shown that it creates beneficial ideas for education system, it would have been completely eliminated. Jim Shelton hopes to increase the number of rural grants in 2011.
