Education Week‘s Alyson Klein noted, “In giving this election-year State of the Union speech, Obama may brag about some of the steps his administration has taken on education, including creating the Race to the Top education redesign competition, and offering states wiggle room under key parts of the No Child Left Behind Act if they agree to take-on the administration’s reform priorities.”

Klein went on to mention, “Last year, President Obama asked Congress to pass a bipartisan reauthorization of the law. But it never happened, and now the administration is moving ahead with a waiver package that Obama’s own secretary of education thinks is stronger than any of the legislation under consideration. So, if I were a betting woman, I’d guess there won’t be much talk about NCLB this time.”

The National School Boards Association (NSBA) will be hosting a Twitter chat during the State of the Union address tonight starting at 9 p.m. EST.

Join the Twitter chat by using hashtag #EdSOTU and share your thoughts about the president’s speech and his plans for K-12 education.

By using #EdSOTU in your tweets, you will become a part of this virtual conversation. To see the entire conversation stream just go to Twitter and search #EdSOTU.

Join the Twitter chat by using hashtag #EdSOTU and share your thoughts about the president’s speech and his plans for K-12 education.

By using #EdSOTU in your tweets, you will become a part of this virtual conversation. To see the entire conversation stream just go to Twitter and search #EdSOTU.

“Our school children deserve a quality education and that cannot happen when their teachers are getting laid off and their school buildings are in need of repairs and upgrades that keep getting postponed due to budget cuts,” said NSBA’s Executive Director Anne L. Bryant. “In the face of massive budget shortfalls and education layoffs at school districts across the country, this new funding would provide necessary aid to America’s schools.”

Breaking down the numbers, 31 percent of Obama’s jobs proposal would be allocated to infrastructure and local aid, with $25 billion earmarked for modernizing public K-12 schools and $35 billion committed to preventing 280,000 teachers and emergency responders from being laid off.

“The American Jobs Act will repair and modernize at least 35,000 schools,” Obama detailed in his speech. “It will put people to work right now fixing roofs and windows; installing science labs and high-speed internet in classrooms all across this country.”

According to Education Week, the school construction monies would be divided among the neediest states, which would have until Sept. 30, 2012 to decide how to divvy it up, though the largest 100 districts would receive a direct grant.

Obama challenged the notion that America can prosper as a society by simply dismantling Big Government.

“Ask yourselves – where would we be right now if the people who sat here before us decided not to build our highways and our bridges; our dams and our airports? What would this country be like if we had chosen not to spend money on public high schools, or research universities, or community colleges?” Obama asked Congress members.

“No single individual built America on their own. We built it together. We have been, and always will be, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all; a nation with responsibilities to ourselves and with responsibilities to one another.”

The question that now remains is will Congress live up to those responsibilities?

According to folks like Fox News commentator and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, schools were doing just fine without this money. After President Obama quickly signed the bill on Aug. 10, Huckabee and others told Fox  that the money would be wasted on bureaucracy.

Really? Because after one of the most brutal budget cycles in memory, we’ve seen projections of up to 300,000 layoffs and widespread reports of schools cutting out libraries, technology programs, reading and math interventions, and extracurricular activities and sports.  

Obviously, those pundits didn’t want to speak to school board member Cathy Johnson, of the South-Western City School District. Her 21,000-student district is looking to hire instructional specialists to help their low-performing students catch up in subjects like reading and math.

“The Education Jobs Fund will help my district maintain the continuity for core instruction that is needed for appropriate class sizes and an enriched curriculum with support services for reading, math, and language arts,” she said at a press conference last week.

One important point that got lost in the hoopla was that this bill was not just about saving teachers’ jobs—not just this year, but districts have until Sept. 30, 2012, to allocate the funds—but it was also about saving programs that enrich student learning and educational experiences.

The U.S. Department of Education held a conference call last Thursday to explain some of the details. One important note, our colleague David Brine at the Washington State School Directors Association writes, “the law stipulates that funds must be used for salaries and benefits for school-based employees, including teachers, principals, and support staff. Funds may not be used for compensation for district-level employees such as superintendents and departmental directors.” Districts also must comply with maintenance of effort requirements.

I’m sure—in these economic times—that school districts can find some where worthwhile to spend their money on.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor

Led by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the administration is asking states and school districts to experiment, to challenge long-held assumptions about teaching and learning, and to innovate — and it is putting up nearly $5 billion in “Race to the Top” (RTT) funds and other incentives to prod them to do it.

Will they be successful? This month, ASBJ puts that question, and several others, to seven authorities in the field of public education. Read what they have to say in this month’s cover story, now available online.