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Realigning Resources for
District Transformation
Using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds
to Advance a Strategic Education Reform Agenda
Center for American Progress and Education Resource Strategies April 2009
Realigning Resources for
District Transformation
Using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds
to Advance a Strategic Education Reform Agenda
Center for American Progress and Education Resource Strategies April 2009
The Center for American Progress thanks The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for generously providing support for this paper.
Introduction | www.americanprogress.org • www.educationresourcestrategies.org 1
Introduction
School districts and states have begun to receive education funds doled out from the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA, and many have a simple plan for
the money—prevent teacher layoffs and restore current programs that were heading
for the chopping block. This plan aligns with the legislation’s intent to address the acute
financial problems facing school districts around the country, yet the act’s name points
to a greater purpose than simple relief for its substantial, one-time funds. The act’s State
Fiscal Stabilization Funds, complemented by a one-time boost to a variety of categori-
cal programs,1 provide an unprecedented opportunity for districts to advance a strategic
agenda: to align and fundamentally restructure their use of resources to improve academic
achievement for all students.
In the pages that follow, we provide concrete ideas for strategic spending in three key
areas—taking stock of current practices, focusing on support for quality instruction,
and making transitional investments—in order to give some guidance to those districts
seeking to balance the act’s short-term focus on preserving jobs with its long-term goals
of promoting student achievement.
2 Center for American Progress • Education Resource Strategies | Realigning Re