Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Education has opened the application period for the first set of grants under the Teacher and School Leader program, for which President Barack Obama requested $250 million in the 2017 budget.
• Applications are due March 24, 2017, once the Trump administration has taken over, and actual grant funding is dependent on Congressional appropriations that haven’t been made yet, but schools can submit proposals for money to create new professional development and support systems and attract and retain a qualified workforce.
• The department's Education Innovation and Research grant competition also launched last week as a new program established by the Every Student Succeeds Act to support development, implementation and scaling of innovative and evidence-based practices.

Dive Insight:

Like the Teacher and School Leader program, the EIR grant program is also subject to Congressional appropriations that have yet to be made, but an announcement by the White House of the program said Obama requested $180 million in his 2017 budget. Schools have reason to be wary about the transition to the Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress when it comes to both applications. The money was promised by one administration and will have to be awarded by another.

Still, the Every Student Succeeds Act was passed with bipartisan support and remains popular in Congress, even if some of the Obama administration’s regulations have been attacked as an overreach. Even with the instability provided during the federal transition, schools could find this grant application process very much worth their time.