Last week at TCEA 2010 Conference, I heard there were budget cuts on the way for Texas education. In itself, this news was not “new.” Yesterday afternoon at around 5:30 PM, an email came out to all administrators:

In January 2010, state leadership asked each state agency to submit a plan to identify savings totaling 5 percent of general revenue appropriations. In response to this request, proposed budget reductions to the Texas Education Agency appropriations were developed by agency management and total about $135 million for the biennium (2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years).

The spreadsheet identifying the grant programs and/or initiatives that are proposed to either be reduced or eliminated is posted on the TEA website and is accessible at the following link: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/lar/FivePrecentReductionTEAl.pdf. Please note the dollar amounts in the columns are the amounts by which the budget was reduced for each year of the biennium, respectively.

The agency was faced with some difficult decisions, and while every effort was made to minimize the impact on direct services to students, the proposed reduction or elimination of some grant programs will have a direct impact on school districts/charter schools. Other proposed reductions or eliminations will have only an indirect impact whereby funding is not provided directly to school districts/charter schools. Please note these proposed budget reductions do not impact any currently funded grant programs (i.e., grant programs for which Notices of Grant Award (NOGAs) have already been issued or which are in process).

The programs/initiatives which may directly impact school districts/charter schools are summarized in the following table:

Name of Program	Program Contact	Phone Number	Funding Contact	Phone Number
High Schools That Work	Dale Fowler	(512) 463-3282	Donnell Bilsky	(512) 463-9269
Investment Capital Fund	Julie Wayman	(512) 936-6403	Sarah Averill	(512) 463-9269
Beginning Teacher Induction and Mentoring (Teacher Mentoring Program)	Priscilla Flores	(512) 463-2395	Vicki Logan	(512) 463-9269
Intensive Summer Program	Chris Caesar	(512) 936-6434	Donnell Bilsky	(512) 463-9269
Math Instructional Coaches Pilot	Dale Fowler	(512) 463-3282	Donnell Bilsky	(512) 463-9269
Student Success Initiative Targeted Assistance Grants (New)	Not assigned		Not assigned
Middle School Physical Education & Fitness	Marissa Rathbone	(512) 463-3064	Karyn Gukeisen	(512) 463-8525
Science Lab Grant Program	Gary Marek	(512) 463-9190	Gary Marek	(512) 463-9190
Life Skills Student Parents	Lauralea Bauer	(512) 463-9073	Karyn Gukeisen	(512) 463-8525
Optional Extended Year	Julie Wayman	(512) 936-6403	Rebecca Patterson	(512) 463-8525

Please call the program or funding contact listed if you have any questions about the aforementioned grant programs and the corresponding proposed funding reductions.

Sincerely,
Robert Scott
Commissioner of Education

I immediately skimmed the PDF that came with it, but didn’t see anything immediately relevant to ed-tech in Texas. Did I miss something?

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