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world. Remember each
alert comes with several HOT GRANTS due in a given month. Scroll
below for 3 Hot Grants due February 15th, 2005****
PLEASE NOTE THE DUE DATE!
Florida Funding Staff
In this update:
I. News
Education: Dade Schools to get $31 million
Social Security: Dividing Congress
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II. Order The Complete
Guide to Florida Foundations, 18th Edition, 2005
III.
Hot Grants: February 2005, Part II
NEWS
EDUCATION
Schools will get $31
million
With a last-minute change, Florida's
education commissioner decided to release more than $31 million for
Miami-Dade to build and repair schools.
BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR
mpinzur@herald.com
In a stunning reversal, Florida's top education official decided
Thursday evening to release more than $31 million in school construction
money to the Miami-Dade school system -- money that he had earlier
indicated would be forfeited to the state.
The money appeared lost earlier this week because a state-appointed
oversight board said the district met only four of its five criteria to
have the money released. But when state Education Commissioner John Winn
reviewed a transcript of the meeting, he saw that oversight chairman Ed
Easton characterized that fifth goal as unattainable.
''It would be unreasonable to interpret that they were requiring the
School Board to meet a standard that was impossible to meet,'' Winn told
The Herald late Thursday. ``They must have been excusing Miami-Dade from
that criteria.''
Winn's decision delighted district leaders and South Florida
lawmakers, who lobbied hastily this week to prevent the overcrowded
system from losing money intended to build and renovate schools.
The $31.3 million is earmarked for various projects across the
county, including construction of eight 240- to 280-seat modular
classrooms and the purchase of land to build an elementary school around
North Miami Beach and a middle school in West Miami-Dade. It is a
relatively small chunk of the district's $3 billion five-year
construction plan, but one that Superintendent Rudy Crew said was vital.
''This is massive, and the needs are massive,'' said Crew, who had
implored Winn to read the transcript before rendering a final verdict.
EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS
''This is seemingly a small amount of money, but to a community
that's waiting for relief of overcrowding, these things are huge,'' Crew
said.
After sitting in a frozen account for three years, this month the
money became a political pinball:
The oversight board, created in 2001 to monitors the district's
reform efforts, voted to release the money a day before the Feb. 1
expiration date. But the vote included a note to Winn that the district
had not lowered maintenance costs by as much as planned.
Winn said the law made no provision for partially certifying the
district's progress and indicated he would not release the money.
On Tuesday, he offered to let the oversight board clarify its
position, but Easton demurred.
By the time Winn ruled that there were insufficient grounds for
releasing the money, the deadline had passed and the money appeared
bound for state coffers. But when Winn honored Crew's request to read
the transcript, he said the oversight board's request to release the
money -- coupled with Easton's explicit statement that the maintenance
goal had become unattainable -- convinced him to relent.
A NEW VIEW
''When I read the motion, that's what turned the whole thing around
to me,'' he said. ``I haven't had a dog in this hunt and still don't,
except to implement the law as stated.''
Easton could not be reached Thursday night.
A number of technical issues remain. The Feb. 1 deadline not only
required the money to be released, but spent. Crew's staff had already
made plans to instantly use the money by substituting it for other funds
on active projects.
''I don't expect that to stop the process,'' Winn said.
Winn's decision also heads off a potentially fiery political battle
between South Florida politicians and state leaders in Tallahassee.
A change last year to the state's cost-of-living-based school funding
formula cost Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties more than $100
million, and the threat of losing another $31 million this week
galvanized the three counties' legislative delegations to announce the
political equivalent of a mutual-aid treaty.
IT'S NOT OVER
The end of this winter's battle, however, has hardly settled the war.
The oversight board still controls roughly $8 million, which will expire
next February.
On the other side, bureaucratic reforms started under former
Superintendent Merrett Stierheim and accelerated under Crew appear to be
draining the Republicans' political will to keep the district under such
tight control. Lawmakers from both parties were part of the effort to
lobby Winn this week, and Crew specifically cited the efforts of state
Sen. Rudy Garcia, the Hialeah Republican who chairs the Miami-Dade
legislative delegation, and Democratic state Sen. Frederica Wilson of
Miami.
''I honestly feel as though the delegation really did a lot of really
important work on this,'' Crew said. ``That's going to improve the
coalition building".
Social Security dividing
Congress
Republican and Democratic
lawmakers are split over whether President Bush's call for private
accounts is the solution to the Social Security solvency problem.
BY SIOBHAN McDONOUGH
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
- Although he considers it ''morally wrong'' to put off
dealing with Social Security, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said
Sunday he agrees with fellow Republicans that changes in the
venerable domestic program can't be forced upon an unwilling
American public. ''What we need to do is really demonstrate the
reality of the problem,'' said Frist, R-Tenn.
Whether the solvency of Social Security in the decades ahead
presents an imminent danger -- and whether President Bush's call for
private accounts is key to the solution -- divided lawmakers
appearing on Sunday talk shows.
`A LOT OF SKEPTICISM'
''The president's plan is not receiving rave reviews by anyone,''
said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. ``Seniors as well as politicians on
Capitol Hill in both parties have a lot of skepticism.''
In 2018, according to agency estimates, Social Security is
expected to begin paying out more in benefits than it collects in
taxes. In 2042, its trust funds would be empty and, by law, benefit
cuts would begin to make up the difference from what taxes bring in.
''We have a catastrophe that can happen unless we act,'' Frist
told Fox News Sunday. ``Politicians can kick it off to the
future, which I think is morally wrong, or we can address it now. We
need to first make sure the American people understand there's a
problem.''
CRISIS QUESTIONED
The Bush administration has referred to Social Security funding
as a crisis. However, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and other
Democrats contended that no crisis exists with a program that can
function unchanged for nearly 40 years.
Rangel, senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee,
also said a bipartisan solution is necessary for such a complicated
problem.
''There is no Democrat in the House of Representatives, on my
committee, that this president has reached out for,'' Rangel said.
``I'm telling you now, Social Security reform by the president is
dead, and he killed it.''
Bush has proposed allowing workers under 55 to divert a
significant portion of their payroll taxes into personal investments
in stocks and bonds. Making up the difference, however, could cost
$1.5 trillion to $2 trillion. Bush has not said how the transition
costs would be funded.
Others questioned the impact of personal accounts on the tax
system.
TAX BURDEN
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., on ABC's This Week, said he
favors personal accounts but that such a change would have to adjust
the benefit structure for older people and probably has to affect
the tax burden.
On Medicare, Frist said there is no reason to unravel a ''a very
strong bill'' before it's even started. Although the cost of the
prescription drug benefit set to begin in 2006 has nearly doubled to
$724 billion in its first decade, Bush has said he would veto
attempts to alter it.
Gregg, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said some
changes in the drug benefit are necessary to make it affordable. |
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HOT GRANTS
Education (February 15)
Applications for HP Technology for Teaching Grants from HP to support
projects that integrate technology and learning in the classroom setting
are currently being accepted.
Approximately 75 schools and 25 higher-education institutions will
receive computer-hardware packages valued at $27, 500 for schools ad
$55,000 for universities, as well as a stipend for the principal
investigator and teachers working on the project.
Who may apply: School projects must be proposed by a team of five
teachers, and preference will be given to projects that have a math or
science focus and are at schools that serve primarily low-income
students.
Higher-education projects must focus on redesigning a core course in
business, computer science, engineering, math, or science.
Contact: HP, PO Box 10301, Palo Alto, CA 94303; (650) 857-3053;
HPTechnologyForTeaching@hp.com;
www.hp.com/go/hpteach
Health (February 15)
Applications for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Clinical
Scholars Program, which provides university-based, postresidency
training to physicians from a variety of disciplines are currently being
accepted.
The program aims to teach physicians skills in improving health-care
services systems, emphasizing community-based research and leadership
training.
Scholars are expected to complete graduate-level research projects in
their priority areas.
Contact: Sally Schroeder, RWJCSP, Stanford U., 30 Alta Road,
Stanford, CA 94305; (650) 566-2337; fax (650) 566-2340;
rwjcspadnin@stanford.edu;
http://rwjcsp.stanford.edu
Music (open deadline)
Applications for grants from the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation to
support young musicians.
The Melody Program, the Special Projects Program, and the Solo
Program provide musical instruments and instrument repair to K-12 music
programs, community art schools, after-school programs, and youth
orchestras, as well as outstanding individual musicians in need of
instruments.
Cash grants are not awarded.
Who may apply: individuals, organizations, and schools in the US that
have demonstrated sufficient need as well as a long-term and serious
interest in music.
Contact: MHOF, 15125 Ventura Blvd, Suite 204, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403;
(818) 784-6787; fax (818) 784-6788;
info@mhopus.org;
www.mhopus.org/apply.htm
_________________________________________________________
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