Arkansas has dramatically increased education funding in recent years in order to meet the state Supreme Court’s mandate to provide adequate and equitable education for all students. However, overall academic achievement still lags behind that of other states and nations, and vast gaps in achievement among students of different income levels and races persist across the state. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provides an unprecedented opportunity for Arkansas school districts to target more resources to research-proven strategies for closing these gaps.

Two of the largest and most flexible pots of money in Arkansas’s stimulus package are the state fiscal stabilization fund ($341 million for K-12 education) and Title I funding ($142 million) for low-income schools. Since Arkansas has not had to lay off teachers, cut salaries or benefits for school employees, or halt critical services or programs for students, our schools will have much more flexibility in their use of ARRA funds than most other states. The federal and state Departments of Education have outlined how school districts may (and should) use stimulus money; generally speaking, it must be “timely, targeted, and temporary,” not spent on new programs that cannot be sustained beyond the one-time federal infusion of cash. Nor is the stimulus intended for across-the-board salary increases, sports facilities, parking lots, or other non-academic purposes. Beyond these basic parameters, districts have a great deal of flexibility in how they chose to spend the money. In fact, local school district superintendents (and school boards) are among the most powerful decision-makers in how nearly half of Arkansas’s federal stimulus package will be spent. Taxpayers and advocates will be watching school districts to make sure that tax dollars are spent wisely and on students who need help the most. If the state and school districts do not spend money in a way deemed appropriate, voters and legislators will remember their poor choices when it comes time to pass new budgets, raise mills, or enact other school policies in the future.

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) believes that we should afford our state’s most valuable natural resource—good teachers—greater pay and a better working environment. That support should be provided through an adequately funded school funding formula. School districts should use the one-time windfall in federal stimulus dollars on other research-proven solutions to closing the achievement gap.