Campaign Promises

Departments -> Education -> General Education

ItemEducation
General EducationGrade
ED-8 The Promise: "Will use the bully pulpit and the example he will set in the White House to promote the importance of arts and arts education in America."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Champions for Arts and Culture", dated 09/11/08.
Source: http://muzartworld.org/president-barack-obama-and-joe-biden-champions-for-arts-and-culture/
Status:Since taking office in 01/09, President Obama set the example by hosting numerous musical performances and workshops at the White House, covering classical music/ballet, jazz, Latin and country music. He added $100M in new funding for the arts including $50M under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to preserve arts jobs. In addition to approximately $25M appropriated to the Department of Education for "Arts in Education" programs, both the national arts and humanities endowments received $167.5M in FY2010, their largest allocations in 16 years.

In terms of arts in education, President Obama's Education Secretary Arne Duncan addressed a letter in 08/09 to "School and Education Community Leaders", to bring to their "attention the importance of the arts as a core academic subject and part of a complete education for all students." The letter then reports on the results of a 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) survey whereby only 57% of 8th graders attended schools where music instruction was offered "at least three or four times a week", and only 47% attended schools where visual arts were offered that often.

Finally, the letter announced the launching of another survey "to assess the condition of arts education in grade K-12." All of these actions and plans fed into promise fulfillment, as the promise was simply to "promote" arts and arts education.

This promise was fulfilled.		1.00
ED-9 The Promise: "Will double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children."
When/Where: Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/ Obama and Biden's documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:The level of funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) established for FY2009, the last Bush Administration budget year, was $1.13B. This was the amount to "double." Here's how appropriated funds for the 21st CCLC looked like during most of President Obama's two terms in office:
FY2010...$1.160B
FY2011...$1.154B
FY2012...$1.128B
FY2013...$1.069B
FY2014...$1.126B
FY2015...$1.151B
FY2016...$1.166B
FY2017...$1.167B

Doubling the FY2009 level of funding would have required $2.26B per annum. This goal was not met. Further, the 21st CCLC served 1.5M students in FY2009 and 1.8M students by end-FY2017. Therefore the goal to serve "one million more children" was also not met.

This promise was not fulfilled.		0.00
ED-10 The Promise: "...will develop K-12 education activities to translate the successes of our civil space programs, particularly our nation's scientific discoveries, our technology developments, and space exploration activities, into instructional programs for our children."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Advancing the Frontiers of Space Exploration" dated 08/15/08.
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/382369main_48%20-%2020090803.2.Space_Fact_Sheet_FINAL.pdf
Status:In President Obama's FY2011 budget proposal for NASA, a section entitled "Inspires More Young People to Engage in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics" specifies that "The Budget supports NASA programs that are designed to meet the goals of the President's 'Educate to Innovate' campaign in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education."

NASA's "Summer of Innovation," for example, works with thousands of middle school teachers and students to engage students in stimulating, evidence-based math and science-based education programs.

Another example is the continuation of the NASA-led Digital Learning Network (DLN), an Internet or video conferencing medium through which over 600K students and teachers (K-through-College) have access to engineers, scientists and mathematicians at 10 NASA centers. Through DLN, educators can guide their students over 50 space-related modules addressing subject matters ranging from asteroids to robotics.

NASA's FY2011 budget for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education purposes was $75M. This budget line item increased to $80M for FY2012, but leveled off at about $67M annually from FY2013 onward through FY2017.

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ED-11 The Promise: "...will require all schools of education to be accredited."
When/Where: Obama and Biden's Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08.
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:According to the Department of Education, the goal of accreditation "is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality." Accrediting agencies, of which there are seven (7), develop evaluation criteria and conduct peer evaluations to assess whether or not those criteria are met.

Institutions and/or programs that meet an agency's criteria are then "accredited" by that agency. The Secretary of Education is required by law to publish a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies. In the United States, a school does not necessarily have to be accredited to operate, but the quality of education it provides is usually considered dubious.

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) also maintains a database of accredited and nonaccredited institutions and programs. Their listing is considered more up-to-date than DOE's listing. The States of Michigan and Oregon also maintain their own listings of degree/diploma mills. Michigan's list has some 600 entries of bogus institutes.

As of CY2016, the top 10 states harboring fake universities, unaccredited institutions of higher education, and unrecognized accrediting agencies were as follows:
California (134)
Hawaii (94)
Washington (87)
Florida (57)
Texas (53)
New York (44)
Louisiana (39)
Illinois (29)
Nevada (29)
Arizona (28)

As of the end of President Obama's second term in office, CHEA's listing of nonaccredited schools was extensive.

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ED-12 The Promise: "...will establish a Presidential Early Learning Council to encourage necessary dialogue among programs at the federal and state levels, and within the private and nonprofit sectors to collect and disseminate the most valid and up-to-date research on early learning, and to highlight best practices and model programs at the state and local level."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Lifetime Success Through Education," dated 10/16/08.
Source: http://doclibrary.com/MSC56/DOC/ObamaEducationPlan12084315.pdf
Status:The cited plan stipulates that the creation of an Early Learning Council would be funded as part of a $10B effort along with Early Learning Challenge Grants, increasing Head Start funding, and other "zero to five" child education initiatives.

In 08/10, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced the creation of the Early Learning Interagency Policy Board designed, according to Department of Education documentation, "to improve the quality of early learning programs and outcomes for young children; increase the coordination of research, technical assistance and data systems; and advance the effectiveness of the early learning workforce among the major federally funded early learning programs across the two departments."

This was not exactly the promised "Presidential Early Learning Council," but the Early Learning Interagency Policy Board's mission comes close to the articulated purpose of the proposed "Council."

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ED-13 The Promise: "...will launch a Children's First Agenda that provides care, learning and support to families with children from birth up to five years old."
When/Where: Obama and Biden's Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08.
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:President Obama supported initiatives to improve education for children in the 0-to-5 age bracket, and his annual budget requests throughout his two terms in office reflect that support.

However, this promise was specifically to "launch a Children's First Agenda," sometimes referred to as the "Kids First Agenda". This didn't happen.

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ED-14 The Promise: "Fully funding IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] will provide students with disabilities the public education they have a right to, and school districts will be able to provide services without cutting into their general education budgets. In addition to fully funding IDEA, ...will ensure effective implementation and enforcement of the Act."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Empower Americans with Disabilities," dated 09/06/08.
Source: http://www.thearc.org/document.doc?id=3073
Status:When Congress enacted the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA) of 1975, which later evolved to become the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990, it determined that the cost of educating children with disabilities was roughly twice as expensive as educating children without disabilities.

Thus, Congress at that time agreed that the federal government would pay a percentage of the "excess" costs being experienced by states, utilizing the national Average Per-Pupil Expenditure (APPE) as the metric and 40% as the limit of the government's payment of "excess" costs.

For FY2009, the annual appropriation for IDEA ($12.580B/16.8% of excess) was buttressed by the infusion of additional capital from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 ($12.2B) for a total of $24.7B representing 33.4% of excess costs.

For FY2010, the appropriation for IDEA amounted to $12.32B or 16.9% of excess costs. For FY2011, the appropriated amount was $11.48B representing 16.1% of excess costs. For FY2012, the appropriated amount was $12.66B representing 17.2% of excess costs.

An "IDEA Full Funding Act" was introduced by both houses of Congress during every Congress while President Obama was in office since CY2009. When the 114th Congress expired at the end of 12/16, S.130 and H.R. 551, Senate and House bills bearing the "IDEA Full Funding Act" title, also expired.

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ED-15 The Promise: "...will double funding for the Federal Charter School Program to support the creation of more successful charter schools..."
When/Where: Obama and Biden's Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08.
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:The U.S. Government funds three related programs: the Public Charter Schools Program (CSP), the State Facilities Incentive Grants Program, and the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program. Candidate Obama perhaps meant all three programs in this promise.

Excluding funding for Voluntary Public School Choice and Magnet Schools Assistance, the charter school grant programs were appropriated $216M for FY2009. This was the amount to "double."

The Federal Charter School Program followed the trend depicted below, being rolled into a subset of the "Expanding Educational Options Authority":

FY2010....$256.0M
FY2011....$255.5M
FY2012....$255.5M
FY2013....$254.8M
FY2014....$248.2M
FY2015....$253.2M
FY2016....$333.2M
FY2017....$253.0M

At no time was the FY2009 amount for the Charter School Program ($216M) doubled to $432M during President Obama's two terms in office.

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ED-16 The Promise: "...will address the dropout crisis by passing his legislation to provide funding to school districts to invest in intervention strategies in middle school - strategies such as personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math instruction, and extended learning time."
When/Where: Obama and Biden's Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08.
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:According to a National Center for Education Statistics study for the CY2007-08 school year, it was estimated that the national high school graduation rate was 63.5% for Hispanics, 61.5% for African Americans, 81% for White Americans, and 64.2% for Native Americans. The Average Freshman Graduation Rate was reported as 74.9% of the student population, leaving the dropout rate at about 25%. 2,000 of the nation's worst-performing schools reportedly accounted for 75% of the minority-student dropout rate.

The "Race to the Top" program, funded at a level of $4.35B under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, contained a provision for turning around the lowest achieving schools and, by extension, would improve the dropout rate at a few, select schools.

To mitigate the school dropout situation, the Graduation for All Act was introduced by Congressman George Miller (D-CA) on 11/19/09 to support high-need middle and high schools in order to improve students' academic achievement, graduation rates, post-secondary readiness, and preparation for citizenry. This bill expired without action at the end of the 111th Congress.

On 08/02/11, Senator Lisa Murkowski (D-MD) introduced the "Early Intervention for Graduation Success Authorization Act of 2011" (S. 1495). This bill was reintroduced as S.1109 by Senator Murkowski on 06/06/13. No action was taken on these bills during the 112th and 113th Congresses.

On 02/09/12, Congressman John Kline (R-MN) introduced the "Student Success Act" (H.R. 3989). This bill also expired with the 112th Congress. Congressman Kline again introduced this bill to the 113th Congress, it passed the House, but died with that Congress. He reintroduced it to the 114th Congress where it passed the House on 07/08/15 but was not voted upon by the Senate. Had the Senate passed this bill, President Obama announced his intention to veto it.

On 04/30/15, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (S.1177) to address the basic tenets of this promise and which contains many of the provisions of the "Student Success Act" cited above. President Obama signed this legislation into law on 12/10/15.

The trend in high school graduation rates during President Obama's two terms in office was as follows, reflecting a steady reduction in the national high school dropout rate:

SY2009-10....75.0%
SY2010-11....79.0%
SY2011-12....80.0%
SY2012-13....81.4%
SY2013-14....82.3%
SY2014-15....83.2%
SY2015-16....84.1%

This promise was fulfilled.		1.00
ED-17 The Promise: "...will also prioritize supporting states that help the most successful charter schools to expand to serve more students."
When/Where: Obama and Biden's Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08.
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:The FY2009 appropriation for charter school programs was $216M. Under President Obama, annual appropriations were as reflected below:
FY2010....$256.0M
FY2011....$255.5M
FY2012....$255.0M
FY2013....$241.5M
FY2014....$248.2M
FY2015....$253.2M
FY2016....$333.0M
FY2017....$332.5M

On 04/30/15, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (S.1177). Section 4303 of this bill is entitled "Grants to Support High-Quality Charter Schools" and responds to the basic thrust of this promise. President Obama signed this legislation into law on 12/10/15.

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ED-18 The Promise: "...will help Limited English Proficient students get ahead by holding schools accountable for making sure these students complete school."
When/Where: Obama and Biden's Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08.
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:On 12/10/15, President Obama signed the "Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)" (S.1177) to essentially replace the "No Child Left Behind Act" signed into law by President George W. Bush on 01/08/02.

ESSA changes references to "Limited English Proficient" students to "English Learners." Title III of this law, entitled "Language Instruction for English Learners and Immigrant Students," states that one of its principal purposes is "to assist all English learners, including immigrant children and youth, to achieve at high levels in academic subjects so that all English Learners can meet the same challenging State academic standards that all children are expected to meet..." Title III also articulates the accountability standards that must be met by schools with English Learner programs.

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ED-19 The Promise: "Reform No Child Left Behind [NCLB]: ...will also improve NCLB's accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them."
When/Where: Obama and Biden's Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08.
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:On 12/10/15, President Obama signed the "Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)" (S.1177) to replace the "No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act" signed into law by President George W. Bush on 01/08/02.

This new law fixes NCLB practices at the national level to allow more flexibility and equality in the accountability area, additional investments in teachers and principals, and more attention to high-risk schools and students.

This promise was fulfilled.		1.00
ED-20 The Promise: "Reform No Child Left Behind [NCLB]: ...will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college and the workplace..."
When/Where: Obama and Biden's Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08.
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:While the Department of Education (DOE) sets general policy on assessments, the application of assessment standards varies from state to state.

The DOE approves or disapproves individual state assessment systems under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) of 1994.

On 12/10/15, President Obama signed the "Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)" (S.1177) to replace the "No Child Left Behind Act" signed into law by President George W. Bush on 01/08/02. Title I, Section 112 of this law states in part: "Each State plan shall demonstrate that the State educational agency, in consultation with local educational agencies, has implemented a set of high-quality student academic assessments in mathematics, reading or language arts, and science."

As a point of reference, the "College Board" report for the Class of 2017 indicated that students made significant progress during President Obama's tenure in improving basic skill sets requisite to succeed in college and in the workplace. It published its Graduating Class of 2017 national Scholastic Aptitude Test mean scores as 533 for reading and writing, up from 501 when President Obama assumed the Office of the Presidency in CY2009; 527 for mathematics, up from 515 in CY2009.

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ED-21 The Promise: "Reform No Child Left Behind [NCLB]: Obama and Biden will reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law."
When/Where: Obama and Biden's Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08.
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:The Obama Administration dropped the moniker "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) for the program by that name started under President Bush in CY2002. Under the structure of this program, grants to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) were funded at $25.0B in FY2009 plus $14.0B received under American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 economic stimulus funding for a total of $39.0B, coming close to the authorized amount for the entire NCLB program of $39.4B.

The gap between authorized and actual funding increased in FY2010 with appropriations amounting to $25.1B leaving unfunded requirements of $14.3B. For FY2011, funding was $29.2B leaving an unfunded gap of $10.2B.

Title I of the NCLB Act ("Improving Basic Programs Operated by State and LEAs") was the cornerstone of the NCLB, codified as the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This Title was funded during subsequent years against the authorized per annum level of $25.0B as follows:
FY2012....$14.5B
FY2013....$13.7B
FY2014....$14.3B
FY2015....$14.4B
FY2016....$15.4B

On 12/10/15, President Obama signed the "Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)" (S.1177) to replace/reform the "No Child Left Behind Act." This new law came into effect starting in FY2017. For FY2017, President Obama requested $16.0B but Congress appropriated $15.4B for Title IA against the authorized level of $16.5B

The "funding the law" aspect of this promise was fulfilled, albeit at less than authorized amounts. Further, the Obama Administration did reform the NCLB as promised by replacing it with the ESSA.

This promise was fulfilled.		1.00
ED-22 The Promise: "...will make math and science education a national priority, and provide our schools with the tools to educate 21st-Century learners."
When/Where: Obama and Biden's Plan: "Lifetime Success Through Education," dated 10/16/08.
Source: http://doclibrary.com/MSC56/DOC/ObamaEducationPlan12084315.pdf
Status:On 11/23/09, President Obama launched the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) related "Educate to Innovate" campaign to move American students from the middle to the top of international pack in science and math achievements over the next decade.

In CY2010 alone, the STEM program had attracted over $700M in donations and in-kind support from Corporate America, philanthropies, service organizations, and private individuals to inspire young people to pursue careers in math and science.

However, the second half of this promise was to provide schools with the tools they need to achieve the 21st Century goal of making American students tops in the world in the areas of math and science.

MATHEMATICS: the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test administered in CY2017 revealed that only 40% of Grade 4 (up from 39% in CY2009), 34% of Grade 8 (unchanged from CY2009) and 25% of Grade 12 students (down from 26% in CY2009) were performing at or above the "Proficient" level in mathematics.

SCIENCE: The most recent figures available for testing at or above the "Proficient" level in science was 38% for Grade 4 in CY2015 (up from 34% in CY2009), 34% for Grade 8 in CY2015 up from 32% in CY2009), and 22% for Grade 12 in CY2015 compared to 21% in CY2009.

Among 65 industrialized countries assessed triennially by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in CY2009, the USA ranked 31st in math and 24th in science. By the time the CY2015 assessment was conducted, the results published by PISA in 12/16, were worse. The USA had gone down to 40th place in math among the 72 member countries participating in the assessment, and down one place to 25th in science proficiency.

With some exceptions, U.S. student performance in math and science was worse by end-CY2016 than it was when President Obama assumed the Presidency in CY2009, despite STEM and other tools he initiated.

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ED-23 The Promise: "Science assessments need to do more than test facts and concepts...states like Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, use an assessment that calls for students to design and conduct investigations, analyze and present data, write up and defend results...will work with governors and educators to ensure that state assessments measure these skills."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan for Lifetime Success Through Education, dated 10/16/08.
Source: http://doclibrary.com/MSC56/DOC/ObamaEducationPlan12084315.pdf
Status:The perfect opportunity to address this promise was in President Obama's "Blueprint for Reform - The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act," presented to Congress on 03/15/10.

In Page 8 of the "Blueprint for Reform," under the heading of "Rigorous College-and Career-Ready Standards," the following statement is made: "States will continue to implement statewide science standards and aligned assessments in specific gradespans, and may include such assessment -- as well as statewide assessments in other subjects, such as history -- in their accountability system."

Further to the above, President Obama signed the "Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)" (S.1177) into law on 12/10/15 to replace the "No Child Left Behind Act." Section 1201(a)(2)(G) of ESSA specifically calls on states to refine "...science assessments required under section 1111(b)(2) in order to integrate engineering design skills and practices into such assessments."

This promise was fulfilled.		1.00
ED-24 The Promise: "...we'll fight to make sure we are once again first in the world when it comes to high school graduation rates."
When/Where: Candidate Obama Campaign Speech on Education, dated 10/15/08.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vEg-deTXkc#t=2m33s
Status:In CY2009, the USA ranked 21st out of 26 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) developed countries in terms of high school graduation rates. Studies also indicated that the United States ranked 7th among the G-8 countries with regard to high school graduation rates.

With a national graduation rate hovering around 75% when President Obama started his first year in office in CY2009, it climbed to 83.2% by the end of the CY2014-15 school year. There remain problem areas, however. The graduation rate for the District of Columbia for school year CY2014-15 was only 69%.

Attaining President Obama's promised "first in the world" status was an unrealistic goal, given that CY2015 high school graduation rates in countries like Slovenia (96%), Japan (95%), Finland (95%) and others with a higher completion rate than the USA are not expected to experience significant reductions in their graduation rate.

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ED-25 The Promise: "...will create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in cities that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement...Cities and private entities will be required to pay 50 percent of the program costs."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Supporting Urban Prosperity", dated 09/11/08.
Source: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/550008/barack-obama-2008-supporting-urban-prosperity.pdf
Status:Promise Neighborhoods are intended to model the Harlem Children's Zone and seek to engage all resident children and their parents in an achievement program based on tangible goals, including college for every participating student, strong physical and mental health outcomes for children as well as retention of meaningful employment and parenting schools for parents.

The Congressional budget appropriation for the Department of Education for FY2010 included $10M under the Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE) Programs of National Significance line item for the creation of Promise Neighborhoods.

On 09/21/10, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced that on a competitive basis, 21 nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions (out of over 300 applicants from 48 states and the District of Columbia) would receive Promise Neighborhood grants of up to $500K. Recipients of these grants (cities/private entities) had to provide 50% of their respective program costs.

The funding profile for subsequent years was as follows:
FY2011...................$29.9M for new awards (20 Promise Neighborhoods)
FY2012...................$59.9M for new awards (17 Promise Neighborhoods) plus $25.9M for program continuation awards
FY2013-FY2015....$56.7M each year for program continuation awards only
FY2016...................$37.0M for program continuation awards only

This promise was fulfilled.		1.00
ED-26 The Promise: "...will support nontraditional approaches, such as student design competitions and internet-based collaborations to engage students and develop the next generation of scientists and engineers."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Advancing the Frontiers of Space Exploration" dated 08/15/08.
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/382369main_48%20-%2020090803.2.Space_Fact_Sheet_FINAL.pdf
Status:Numerous competitions exist to permit the design of fresh solutions to next generation technological challenges. The NASA-sponsored Lunabotics Mining Competition held in 05/10 and involving 22 schools is but one example. Another example is the CY2010-CY2011 "green aviation" competition for students and teams to submit ideas and designs for vehicle/propulsion concepts that could lower noise, emissions and fuel consumption goals by CY2020.

There was also no shortage of online collaboration mediums such as "The Globe Program" to allow students to participate in world-wide data gathering on the global environment, NASA's "Cube Quest Challenges" project to connect K-12 students to NASA experts, and the "Internet Science and Technology Fair (ISTF)" to permit collaboration between students/teachers and scientists/engineers.

Further, President Obama's "Educate to Innovate" initiative resulted in over $1B in public-private partnership financial and in-kind support for STEM programs, showcased annually in the White House Science Fair. President Obama's "support" for these programs appeared to be solid despite uncertain fiscal resources during his presidency.

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ED-27 The Promise: "...will increase resources for the U.S. Department of Education's Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination Grants, which develop public/private partnerships between schools and arts organizations..."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Champions for Arts and Culture", dated 09/11/08.
Source: http://muzartworld.org/president-barack-obama-and-joe-biden-champions-for-arts-and-culture/
Status:In FY2009, the Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) Program was funded at the $4.2M level. Under President Obama, the appropriation for FY2010 increased to $14.0M followed by $14.2M for FY2011. In FY2011, the Obama Administration did not seek separate funding for the "Arts in Education" program. Instead, "Arts in Education" became a subset of a new program entitled "Effective Teaching and Learning for a Well-Rounded Education."

The final appropriation for "Arts in Education" in FY2012 was $24.9M, but declined slightly to $23.6M in FY2013. Efforts to "increase resources" continued in subsequent years as follows:

FY2014....$25.0M
FY2015....$25.0M
FY2016....$27.0M
FY2017....$26.9M

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ED-28 The Promise: "...will engage the foundation and corporate community to increase support for public/private partnerships...[between schools and arts organizations]"
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Champions for Arts and Culture", dated 09/11/08.
Source: http://muzartworld.org/president-barack-obama-and-joe-biden-champions-for-arts-and-culture/
Status:Since FY2011 and for the remainder of President Obama's tenure in office, the Department of Education's "Arts in Education" program has been funded with the stipulation that funds were to be allocated to "a number of arts education activities through grants to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs), State educational agencies (SEAs), nonprofit organizations, institutions of higher education, organizations with expertise in the arts, and partnerships of these entities.

Such partnerships included the National Endowment for the Arts' relationship with select, arts-deprived schools through its "Our Town Grantee Program."

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