Social Sector Innovation Funds - Lessons Learned and Recommendations - 2 views
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Chip Linehan on 08 Dec 12Article on how the government and philanthropies can support innovation in education.
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Susan Smiley on 09 Dec 12Chris mentioned this in class, that DOE has put $150M - a mere $150M - toward innovation in education. A drop in the bucket toward what needs to be resourced to education innovations. Philanthropies are certainly helping a great deal, but we need a lot more from our government (and our tax dollars).
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Cole Shaw on 09 Dec 12What's the big barrier (besides government reluctance to spend money on education) to this? Historically, I thought that education funding was left to states as "states rights", hence the fact that the Federal government has even put up any money should be a step forward. I would be interested in hearing what people think are the levers for getting the Federal government to invest more...should education research be treated like NSF or NIH "basic research" and get core government support?
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Chip Linehan on 10 Dec 12I believe that the federal government used to spend more dollars for basic research in education, but that number has been reduced dramatically over the years. I agree 100% that we need to increase this type of investment, and the federal government is the natural source. These social innovation funds are a separate type of investment, distinct from basic research. These grants are "translational" in that they seek to help commercialize promising research, but are not intended to fund the basic research. For a healthy and dynamic ecosystem of innovation in education, we need both.