Special Report: IDEA and the Stimulus
Among its many efforts, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will add $12.2 billion in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funding over the course of the next five months. Of course, spending the new money isn't without its challenges, including fully understanding new flexibility options and taking care not to make programmatic promises that cannot be kept when the funding expires.
The Obama administration has explicitly warned that the ARRA boost is not necessarily the new "baseline" for future funding. Unlike the traditionally appropriated IDEA funding from Congress, which is focused on providing continuing support for special education, the goals for the ARRA pot are promoting reform while offering long- and short-term economic impact.
Those two goals, considered somewhat contradictory by many observers, mark an important hurdle for funding. How exactly can school officials use the additional IDEA funding to boost achievement and stimulate the economy without feeling the pinch of the so-called "funding cliff" when the money runs out in two years?
