As education budgets continue to suffer, our goal is to help administrators unravel the maze

The recent headline in a New Jersey newspaper about yet more education budget cuts could have been from virtually anywhere in the country: “Schools thought they’d prepared for worst; they were wrong.”

Indeed, even as the economy seems to be emerging from the devastating recession, school districts continue to feel the very-real pain of budget cuts and funding shortfalls. Administrators have had to make tough decisions about allocating resources, and no doubt more pain lies ahead.

And yet, there are federal government funding resources out there that could make a real difference for cash-strapped districts. The problem is that some administrators may not know about those opportunities or do not understand the procedures for applying.

No one ever said it was a simple task to work through the maze of dealing with the federal grant makers.

Case in point:  The U.S. Department of Education soon will award $650M in Investing in Innovation Fund (known as “i3”) grants.  The awards will be based on a competitive review of applications from around the country, so it certainly behooves administrators to submit the best application packages possible.

Some administrators may need a head start.

That’s why we at Apangea Learning are committed to helping administrators and others in school districts know about funding opportunities and then how to master the complexities of securing those resources.

On March 22^nd, we continue our knowledge-sharing initiative by hosting a webinar focused on the i3 grants.  On March 30^th, we’ll host another webinar, this one dealing with the practical steps administrators should consider in going after some of the $3.5 billion being made available through the Obama Administration’s 2009 stimulus program.

Both Webinars will be presented by Todd Lamb, a former U.S. Department of Education official and a noted authority of school funding.   Lamb’s focus will be on the real-life steps administrators should take to win federal money.

Want to participate?

Visit www. apangealearning.com/news/webinars.html for more information and to sign up for the webinars.

Let’s unravel the maze together.