Are funds for education being spent wisely? Not according to United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who, in a broad-based interview with THE Journal June 12, stressed the importance of thinking differently about how we invest resources. “What [superintendents] do with the new money misses the point. What we really want to do is have folks rethink existing resources as well. And what I would argue in lots of places is that existing resources are not being spent as wisely as they could,” he told THE Journal at a meeting held at the U.S. Department of Education’s offices.
And this goes for technology. As “unprecedented money is being distributed to education,” the Department has stressed wise investments that acknowledge the one-time nature of funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Guidelines from the Department for all these funds point out the “funding cliff,” and note, “These funds should be invested in ways that do not result in unsustainable continuing commitments after the funding expires.”