To support improvements in teaching and learning and to help meet special needs of schools and students in elementary and secondary education, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is delivering about $28 billion this year to states and school districts, primarily through formula-based grant programs. To help strengthen teaching and learning in colleges, universities, and other post secondary institutions, ED is providing about $2 billion.

The Student Financial Assistance Programs in the Office of Post secondary Education offer funding to individuals looking for financial help to pursue their educational goals. Under these programs, the Department makes a variety of grants and loans for post secondary education. Formula grant programs are non-competitive awards based on a predetermined formula. Sometimes referred to as state-administered programs or statutory entitlement programs, they are administered by various program offices. Information about formula grant programs at the U.S. Department of Education is contained in the Guide to U.S. Department of Education Programs. The process of making a federal grant begins long before an applicant or grantee ever sends a piece of paper to the government. Federal grants have their origin in the legislative process of Congress and the regulatory process of federal agencies. A federal agency such as the Department of Education must set up a structure for the orderly review, award, and administration of grants.
What is a discretionary grant?
Unlike a formula grant, a discretionary grant awards funds on the basis of a competitive process. The Department reviews applications in light of the legislative and regulatory requirements established for a program. This review process gives the Department discretion to determine which applications best address the program requirements and are, therefore, most worthy of funding.
What is a cooperative agreement?
A cooperative agreement is a type of discretionary grant the Department awards when it determines that substantial involvement with the grantee is necessary during the performance of a funded project. Substantial involvement might include such things as ongoing departmental participation in the project, unusually close collaboration with the recipient, and/or possible intervention or direct operational involvement in the review and approval of the successive stages of project activities.

The first thing to consider before applying for a grant is to determine whether your organization is eligible under theprogram. Once you know the number and title of the grant program(s) under which you want to apply, you may wish to review the program regulations provided in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) The application package lists the eligibility requirements, generally drawn from the legislation establishing the program. Eligibility might be limited to a particular type of organization (e.g., only state education agencies), organizations that serve only a particular group (e.g., disadvantaged students), or organizations that meet some other criteria. In some cases, an organization wishing to apply under a particular program must first apply to the Department to be certified as eligible for that program.

Asking for grant funds from the Department of Education is not a complicated process, but it requires that you give us specific information to enable us to consider your request fairly and completely. When you apply for discretionary grant funds, you must provide and send us information on two or more different forms.

What are funding priorities?

For some programs, the Department publishes funding priorities in the Federal Register to identify the activities that will be funded in a given year. Funding priorities are used as a way of focusing a competition on the areas in which the Secretary is particularly interested in receiving applications. The Department uses three kinds of funding priorities in its programs: absolute, competitive, and invitational. If the Department publishes an ‘absolute priority’ for a program, it will consider for funding only those applications that address that priority. For example, a published absolute priority to fund only projects that increase the amount of time students are engaged in the study of mathematics and science would mean that only those projects that are designed to achieve this result could potentially receive funding. If the Department publishes ‘competitive priorities’ for a program, applicants addressing those priorities might receive additional points during the competitive review process for doing so. If the Department publishes ‘invitational priorities’, it encourages applicants to address certain issues in their project design. However, an application that meets the priority receives no competitive or absolute preference over applications that do not meet the priority.
The big day has finally arrived. The Department notifies you by letter, phone, or e-mail that your application has been funded. You breathe a sigh of relief and then the question "What next?" undoubtedly crosses your mind. One could say that the real work begins at this point. There will be post award communications and discussions with Department officials. And then, of course, you will start the substantive activities of your project, which go on for a year or more. This section looks at the way a funding recommendation turns into a grant award, what takes place during the funding
process, and how to turn that prized grant award into the dollars that are essential for you to carry out your project successfully. Finishing project activities by the end of a budget or project period is only half the story of a grant project. The other half is telling the sponsoring agency in this case, the Department of Education about it. You should put as much care into timely, accurate, and comprehensive reporting of activities you undertake as you put into planning those same activities when writing the application. Your reporting, in turn, becomes the basis for the grant teams evaluation of the effectiveness of its programs, as well as its own reporting to Congress, the General Accounting Office, and the public. The project activities are finished, the Department has received all the required reports, and the records of your project are safely stored away for the next few years. That just about takes care of everything, right? Not quite. During the life of a grant project, you will most likely be required to get an independent audit of your project and its expenditures and to send a copy of the audit report to the Department for its review. In some instances, the Department conducts its own audit of your grant project after the end of the project period. This is one reason that it is important that you observe and follow the record retention requirements. You will find more information about this at: www.ed.gov
 
 

Here is a list of a few of the proposals that are being funded.

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology: Developing future teachers who know how to use modern learning technologies to improve student learning is a major challenge facing our nations teacher preparation system.

Community Technology Centers: The purpose of this program is to promote the development of model programs that demonstrate the educational effectiveness of technology in urban and rural areas and economically distresses communities.

Star Schools: Support projects that utilize distance learning technology to provide instructional programs to students and professional development to teachers in undeserved populations.

Technology Literacy Challenge Fund: Provides funding to help states and school districts develop and implement plans to meet the four national educational technology goals.

Technology Innovation Challenge Grants: promotes innovative uses of educational technology by awarding grants to partnerships of school districts, universities, businesses, libraries, software designers and others.

Here are some additional web sites you can go to for more information.

InfoEd international
Here you can find a lot of information about funding opportunities such as: New funding opportunities, deadlines coming up, new sponsors, program changes, search tips.

Federal Agency Information
This page provides direct links to specific Federal agency information and materials. This page gives a list of the different federal agencies that offer grants and what they require to get them. On this page you can look up anything you want to know about a certain agency and apply for it. www.montana.edu/wwwvr/sources.html