Let's Keep up the Pressure...

Over 7,300 emails to Congress in the past weeks opposing major education technology cuts in the FY06 education appropriations bill.

Today, your efforts have paid off! This afternoon, the House of Representatives rejected, by a vote of 224 to 209, the conference report on the Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations bill, which would have slashed the Enhancing Education Through Technology program to $275 million, which represents a 45% cut over last year. Without further action on this legislation this week, EETT and all education programs will operate for the next month under a Continuing Resolution, which funds EETT at $300 million.

This action in the House gives us a second chance to press Congress for more education technology funding. Let's use it. Please call and email your Senators and Representatives and tell them to use the opportunity provided by this dramatic vote to increase EETT funding to at least last year's $496 million level.

One More Week to Tell Congress to Fund Ed Tech!

Congress and the Administration are in the process of finalizing how much money to devote to EETT for FY 06. The EETT program provides states and school districts with funds to purchase hardware and software, engage in professional development, develop database systems, operate online assessments, and conduct outreach to parents. Nearly 25% of states rely on EETT as their sole source of education technology funding. Last year, the program received an appropriation of $496 million.
At the beginning of this year, the Administration proposed in its FY 06 budget proposal to eliminate EETT entirely. The full House and the Senate Appropriations Committees disagreed with the Administration's position, proposing to fund EETT at $300 million and $425 million, respectively. Since Congress failed to approve final funding figures for all education programs by the end of the 2005 Fiscal Year (September 30), EETT has been operating under a temporary funding measure, known as a Continuing Resolution, which funds EETT until November 18th at the House's $300 million funding level.
The disaster wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has thrown the entire FY06 Appropriations process into further tumult. A number of Congressional members are seeking to pay for the federal costs of reconstruction by cutting FY06 funding for all programs from 2% to 5% and eliminating some programs entirely. If either option is adopted, EETT could receive funding even less than the House's $300 million figure, which already represents a substantial cut from FY05 levels.
CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES TODAY AND TELL THEM TO FUND EETT!

Status of Recent RFPs

Fifty two proposals have been submitted to SDE for the Laptop/Online Writing Assessment rfp. Readers have received the proposals and will be getting together at ACES to compare their notes and develop final scores. Since the funds for this grant are from the general budget, SDE hopes to send out award letters quickly, hopefully, before Thanksgiving. Although neither a reader nor scorer, I did review many of the requests; some very exciting projects have been proposed. If we can show that the online writing assessment tools make a difference in our students’ writing, then we will have hard data that can be presented to the state board of education and eventually, to the state legislature for funding. Our aim is to provide free, exemplary resources on the Connecticut Education Network (CEN).

Many of our districts have responded to the Infrastructure grant. More than 100 proposals were received as of November 4th. Proposals should be mailed out to the thirty readers by November 10th. On November 21st., all of the readers will gather at CREC. At that meeting, Rob Vietzke and John Vittner (from CEN) will be available for questions and will assist the groups of readers in their scoring. Although the database of scores that should be completed on the afternoon of the 21st. will give us the projected awardees, announcements will not be made for some time. SDE is not allowed to send award letters to districts until the funds are released by the Bond Commission. Although the $5M has been legislatively allocated, SDE must go back to the Commission to request the release of the funds. This can only be accomplished when SDE knows who the awardees will be. Although there is a December Bond Commission meeting, submissions to become agenda items for that meeting had to be submitted no later than November 4th. We expect is to be placed onto the January agenda.

If you have concerns or questions about either of these proposals, do not hesitate to contact me at (860) 713-6553 or by e-mail at arthur.skerker@po.state.ct.us.

Infrastructure RFP; Can You Lease Fiber?

Bond funds are targeted at long term purchases. If you cannot purchase fiber at a reasonable cost, you may lease fiber and frontload its cost, as long as, the lease represents an upgrade in connectivity that reduces an existing bottleneck or if the fiber provides connectivity to a new site. Proposals that request funding for leased fiber, must remove monthly maintenance costs from the proposal. If the proposed leased fiber does not remove a bottleneck or increase the performance to the network, the lease will not be allowed.

If you have any concerns about your proposal, please call me (860) 713-6553.