Innovation has been slow to reach classrooms across America in part because the federal government spends very little to support basic research on education technology, a senior White House official said Tuesday.
Less than one percent — perhaps even less than a tenth of one percent — of the federal education budget is spent on research and development, said Kumar Garg, an assistant director for learning and innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
That means “we’re just not taking enough shots on goal,” Garg said during POLITICO’s Education Technology Intersection event.
Garg also noted that education is a tough market for technology companies, because it’s fragmented across thousands of school districts and tens of thousands of schools.
