Strings Attached To Stimulus Dollars For Schools

LIBBY QUAID

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is ready to hand out more stimulus dollars for schools, but this time, strings are attached.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said another $11.5 billion is available to states, which have already received more than $67 billion.

Duncan said the administration wanted to distribute most of the money quickly to bolster state budgets that have been ravaged by the recession.

Now Duncan is making it tougher to get the rest of the dollars because the administration wants states to adopt President Barack Obama's vision of reform.

States will have to fill out a far more detailed application that demands information on Obama's broad goals — tougher academic standards, better ways to recruit and keep effective teachers, a method of tracking student performance and a plan of action to turn around failing schools.

For example, states will be required to identify their lowest-achieving schools by name and tell the department how, or whether, officials have tried to turn the schools around.