The Biden administration鈥檚 priorities for education grants will include promoting equity in resources and opportunities, addressing learning loss caused by the pandemic, and advancing 鈥渟ystemic change鈥� in schools.
These priorities, named in a Federal Register notice Dec. 10, involve U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona鈥檚 top issues for grants that Cardona and his department award at their discretion for both K-12 and higher education.
Beyond that, they represent the Biden administration鈥檚 overarching philosophy for the most important issues facing schools.
The don鈥檛 apply to federal money that goes out to states and school districts through formulas set by Congress, such as Title I aid for disadvantaged students. And they cover a very small portion of the Education Department鈥檚 overall budget. Yet they will serve as a lens through which federal officials will judge hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to schools for a variety of projects.
In a related move, the department simultaneously announced a new grant competition to bolster efforts to help students and schools . The grants will be overseen by the Institute for Education Sciences, and will fund 鈥渞esearch recovery network鈥� for pre-K, K-12, and community colleges.
In June, the department released a draft version of the discretionary grant priorities for public comment. Those top issues didn鈥檛 change in the final version, but the department did tweak some details about them after getting feedback from educators and others.
Some told the department that its use of the term 鈥渆ducator鈥� in its draft lacked clarity about who the term referred to. In response, the department added a definition for the term that includes 鈥渆arly childhood educators, teachers, principals and other school leaders, specialized instructional support personnel (e.g., school psychologists, counselors, school social workers), paraprofessionals, and faculty.鈥�
And for the priority for grants to address COVID-19鈥檚 affects, the agency added a focus on 鈥渦nderserved students.鈥�
The priorities detail ways grants can be used to further the Biden administrations鈥� top issues for schools, and such strategies can vary widely.
For example, the department鈥檚 priority dealing with K-12 workforce would apply to projects focused on 鈥渋ncreasing the number of diverse educator candidates who have access to an evidence-based comprehensive educator preparation program,鈥� or those that address 鈥渋mplementing or expanding loan forgiveness or service-scholarship programs for educators based on completing service obligation requirements.鈥�
During the Trump administration, former education Secretary Betsy DeVos鈥� priorities for federal grants included school choice and STEM.
Here are the official discretionary grants priorities released Friday:
- 鈥淎ddressing the Impact of COVID鈥�19 on Students, Educators, and Faculty鈥�
- 鈥淧romoting Equity in Student Access to Educational Resources and Opportunities
- 鈥淪upporting a Diverse Educator Workforce and Professional Growth To Strengthen Student Learning鈥�
- 鈥淢eeting Student Social, Emotional, and Academic Needs鈥�
- 鈥淚ncreasing Postsecondary Education Access, Affordability, Completion, and Post-Enrollment Success鈥�
- 鈥淪trengthening Cross-Agency Coordination and Community Engagement To Advance Systemic Change鈥�
