“Where did all the money go?” It’s a question I share with hordes of laid-off teachers who heard about the billions and billions of dollars—think Carl Sagan—that were promised for infusing U.S. schools. Stare at your district’s budget too long and you may have the same questions.
But this year’s Money Issue is about not what you got (or didn’t), but what you can do with what you already have. We try to push behind the numbers, and see the real results of actual investment. Stalwart contributor Pam Derringer digs into some district cash-saving initiatives: Think power management, virtualization of servers and desktops, and even cloud computing (“Going Green,”). Going green, it turns out, is as much about saving dollars as it is about saving the earth. Likewise, writer Ellen Ullman surveys schools that have automated their asset management and have found substantial savings as a result (Details”R”Us).
Of course, we couldn’t go an entire Money Issue without at least some pages devoted to how to get it. Our grant guru, Gary Carnow, has some brilliant insight into the niceties of grant writing (“Go or No-Go, You've Got Work to Do,”). And our annual grant calendar, sponsored by Dell, provides a long list of opportunities to find the money you need to finance your next great classroom innovation.
Speaking of which, we’ve been getting a bit of heat from readers online about our 100@30 list, which is an attempt to identify the most influential people in edtech. “Where are the practitioners?” many have asked. My answer: Nominate them! www.techlearning.com/article/26660
Kevin Hogan
Editorial Director
