You got
the money, now what do you do with it? The recent American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) put additional Title I funds into schools. Now
it is up to school boards, superintendents, and constituents to decide
how to use it. Pre-K Now just published a guide for school administrators to
help with those decisions. Many school systems face achievement-gap
problems associated with the psycho-social delays in children related
to poverty. Title I funds are legislatively targeted to address those
deficits.

How
can your school system encourage literacy among all of your students by
first grade? How do you target the kids that need help the most? How
can you proactively address the inequalities of poverty within the
budgetary constraints of the current climate? A number of reports have
discussed the importance of early education in increasing high school
graduation rates.

Essentially,
these new funds are meant to support already existing and effective
programs. The U.S. Department of Education does not want these funds
used for pilot programs that haven't proven their worth. This is why
using Title I to support public pre-k makes so much sense. From the
report:

Districts
may only use Title I funds to expand access to and/or supplement
existing services. For example, Title I can be used to expand a
half-day pre-k program to full day. There are strong stipulations
against using Title I funds to “supplant” other resources, i.e. using
Title I money for something previously paid for with state or local
dollars.

School
districts – maybe even your own — may be sitting on a bucket of cash
for at-risk kids, and just need to access those dollars. If your
district is in that position, you should consider investing in the
future by supporting your pre-k program in your school, locality, or
state. Maybe you have one pre-k classroom in your school with a wait
list. This is the perfect time to start up an additional classroom to
give more kids access to a high-quality early learning experience.
Maybe your school system needs to align its pre-k through 3rd grade
strategies or establish common goals for pre-k programs. Now is the
time. Read the report and learn how Title I works for pre-k.

Image: http://prekvt.blogspot.com/2008/02/pre-k-rules-challenge-cap.html