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Concrete ideas from the Center for American Progress for strategic spending in three key areas-taking stock of current practices, focusing on support for quality instruction, and making transitional investments-in order to give some guidance to those districts seeking to balance the act's short-term focus on preserving jobs with its long-term goals of promoting student achievement.

This Broadband Stimulus Webinar is sponsored by Aperto, Wireless Connections and Edgenics. It is being hosted by the E Broadband Services Alliances (EBSALL), a non-for-profit alliance founded by the three companies to provide broadband services to under-served and un-served markets. This Webinar will provide valuable insights concerning: (1) opportunities for funding broadband initiatives under provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA); (2) WiMAX wireless technologies used to implement broadband networks with insights on the design, engineering, and planning of broadband networks; and (3) best practices for securing broadband funding.

The top education official in the Obama administration says that federal stimulus dollars for school districts are meant to be spent over two years, which aligns with the position of L.A. school officials in their ongoing political war with employee unions over looming layoffs. The comment by Education Secretary Arne Duncan is significant because unions have been campaigning for district officials to spend as much of the stimulus money as needed to save jobs now. District officials have countered that employees must agree to conditional salary concessions if all jobs are to be saved. District officials have argued that federal stimulus money should be split over two years, in large measure because both years are likely to prove economically dire.

The Secondary School Innovation Fund Act would provide critical resources for innovative secondary school redesign to dramatically raise high school graduation rates and stem the flow of high school dropouts.

The Center for American Progress, along with our partners, has carefully crafted a policy definition of expanded learning time. Aimed at high-poverty, underperforming schools, expanded learning is the lengthening of the school day, school week, or school year for all students in a given school by at least 30 percent-the equivalent of roughly two hours per day or 360 hours per year. To be \neffective, the concept of expanded learning requires the complete redesign of a school's educational program in a way that combines academics with enrichment for a well-rounded student experience and that supports teachers by giving them more time for planning, training, and professional development. \n

This is a fabulous Stimulus Package Reporting idea - something that I've been thinking about too. It could work for every sector. Social media tools could play a huge role in organizing projects, monitoring progress and keeping everything transparent. I love all the concepts in this web site. Excellent work! Training would be needed however, because project leads are not necessarily the kind of people who normally use these tools.