Hope Street Group’s economic opportunity platform includes specific education policy recommendations that are aligned with many of the guiding principles and proposed reforms that accompany funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). We believe that in today’s economic environment, education investments must be prioritized for those initiatives that have the power to jumpstart and then continually fuel our economic recovery.  Such investments can support states to continue and accelerate their efforts to deliver better education results and a more competitive workforce by:

1. Building capacity to measure, manage, and improve performance;
2. Ensuring all students have access to a quality teacher;
3. Advancing teaching into a 21st-century profession;
4. Establishing high, competitive standards and assessments; and
5. Promoting best practices and rewarding innovation.

We have closely followed the development and passage of ARRA legislation and will continue to gather resources on its implementation and convene stakeholders to assess how we can best dedicate limited resources to improving the education system for all Americans.

Hope Street Group Resources on ARRA:

ARRA Guidance for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund - 3/2009
Our analysis of the Department of Education guidance released on March 7, 2009.

ARRA Analysis Update - 2/19/09
Our analysis of the final AARA legislation passed on February 13, 2009, highlighting the reform measures in the bill.

Analysis of Education Reform in the ARRA - 2/11/2009
Our analysis of the House and Senate versions of the recovery package prior to passage of the final bill.