ARRA Funds

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) undoubtedly will provide education much needed resources to alleviate strained budgets. However, in my discussions with EL educators, there is skepticism about whether schools will actually see stimulus dollars and uncertainty on how ELLs can benefit from ARRA funds. In fact, one educator recently told us that “the stimulus could just as well be Monopoly money,” and others are saying, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” I would like to know if you’re feeling the same way.

Recently, a highly respected group of EL leaders published a paper on how educators can use ARRA funds to improve the education outcomes of ELLs. For school districts deciding on how to use their precious ARRA funds, I highly recommend that you review the Working Group on ELL Policy paper at http://www.stanford.edu/~hakuta/ARRA/.

Best regards,

Mark Espinola
CEO