Q: My sister is vehemently opposed to our local school budget and argues that "Washington should butt out" of funding local schools. In a downturn, shouldn't we try to get more dollars from the federal government?

A: For decades, the federal role in public school funding has been limited. More than 90 percent of revenues for the nation's public schools come from state and local sources. The Center on Education Policy data shows that in school year 2007-8, the federal government contributed just 8 percent of the total revenues for elementary and secondary education.

Where does the lion's share come from? In 2007-8, an average 44 percent came from the states and 48 percent came from local sources -- mostly property taxes. The mix varies depending on the state. (In Nevada, only 31 percent came from the state. In Vermont, 86 percent came from the state.)

Your sister might be thinking of the federal economic stimulus funds known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed in February 2009. Education was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the $814 billion pot of money. Education got $100 billion, a one-time allocation that saved thousands of teaching positions on the chopping block due to reduced state and local revenues. (Three-fifths of the average school budget is spent on instruction.)

U.S. Department of Education data shows that the stimulus package funded more than 360,000 positions during the 2009-10 school year. For example, California saved more than 55,000 positions with the money; Florida, 25,000; and Georgia, 20,000. (Track education stimulus dollars at edmoney.org. Track all stimulus funds at recovery.gov.)

"While the number of jobs saved may seem eye-popping, the stimulus funding didn't seem like a windfall to many school districts," observes Education Week reporter Michele McNeil in a Hechinger Report on the impact of the dollars on school budgets. "That's because many recession-battered states, desperate to balance their budgets, cut education funding and spent the savings on other public services. They then used federal stimulus money to back-fill those budgetary holes for education."

The stimulus money included the Department of Education's $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund that compelled districts to improve education outcomes for students by implementing rigorous standards aligned with assessments; creating longitudinal data systems to track students' progress; improving effectiveness and distribution of teachers; and providing interventions to low-performing schools.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan described the investment as the country's education "moon shot" designed to lead the world in academic achievement. Will we look back in a decade and see results?

Only if parents and leaders at the local level get involved. A new report, "After the Stimulus Money Ends: The Status of State K-12 Education Funding and Reforms," shows that a majority of states say they are not planning to create incentives for highly qualified teachers or principals to remain in or move to districts and schools where they are needed most.

"This is likely because several actions related to educator effectiveness and low-performing schools have traditionally been addressed at the local rather than the state level," says Nancy Kober, report co-author. (For more information, go to www.cep-dc.org.)

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: My son, Josh, is a freshman who blows off his homework. He says he "works on it" in school, but he had several incompletes in his last grading period. He's no genius, but he didn't have this problem in middle school. How can I motivate him?

A: Many students hit a homework wall in high school. The study skills that allowed them to muddle through grades K-8 aren't strong enough to provide the structure and discipline needed for the harder course load in high school. There's no reason Josh can't get his act together -- genius or not, says Wes Crenshaw, Ph.D., a Lawrence, Kan., psychologist. Crenshaw, author of "Dear Dr. Wes: Real Life Advice for Parents of Teens" (Family Psychological Press, 2011), gets this question often.

Crenshaw tells parents to drop "homework" and institute something called "study time" each day, starting with early elementary school. "Study time is a defined period of the afternoon or evening when students work on learning something," he says. "Using the 10-minutes-of-study-per-grade rule of thumb, a second grader would have 20 minutes of study time. A ninth grader, 90."

If students don't have assignments from class or if they finished the work at school, they can work on something else, such as enrichment activities: re-reading a chapter, reading a book, solving a puzzle, practicing math problems, doing an art project. The idea is to promote learning for the sake of ... (BEGIN ITALS)learning(END ITALS).

In Josh's case, says Crenshaw, he might learn SAT vocabulary words or practice activities for the ACT test. "If you do this correctly," he says, "Josh will never again claim to have no homework because he'll have to use the study time one way or the other."

Do three things to give Josh structure, says Miranda Davis, a "teen co-author" with Crenshaw on "Dear Dr. Wes." First, help him set up a system for organizing and tracking assignments each week and over time. Just make sure it's Josh, not you, who ultimately takes responsibility. Second, stay in touch with teachers through email and meetings; make sure the incompletes don't continue. Third, use all available technologies to help Josh stay organized. She adds that some districts have software programs like PowerSchool to track grades and assignments.

If Josh does a full 90 minutes of study time Monday through Thursday and there are no more incompletes, then give him the weekend off, says Crenshaw. Save Sunday to get a smart start on the week.

"If he is getting the job done, let him have Sunday off too," he says.

If he needs help with study skills such as note taking and summarizing, Donna Goldberg's excellent book "The Organized Student: Teaching Children the Skills for Success in School and Beyond" (Touchstone, 2005) is an invaluable guide.

Any problems with compliance should result in removal of all of Josh's entertainment devices, advises Crenshaw.

"Playing the bad cop now will make him a stronger overall student," he says. "College is expensive. Give him the tools to succeed as a scholar. Ninety minutes a day isn't a big investment in what Josh stands to gain."

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: I'm urging my son's high school to offer programming classes. Our state adopted the Common Core Standards and I thought that guidelines for teaching computer science would be among them ... not! If we want to prepare our children for the future, shouldn't we teach them programming languages?

A: Hank Pellissier, managing director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, agrees. "Computer programming ... may be the most important second language your child will ever learn. According to a growing number of experts, learning computer science will not only pave the way for future employment prospects -- job growth in this sector is booming -- but contribute to the U.S. economic recovery as well," blogs Pellissier at greatschools.org.

The Common Core Standards outline what K-12 students should learn in language arts and mathematics (www.corestandards.org). While the mathematics standards include skills essential to learn programming, they do not include programming itself. Few states include computer science as a core academic subject for graduation. Computer science teacher preparation and certification varies widely.

Yet more and more parents and educators agree with a recent report from the Computer Science Teachers Association, "Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K-12 Computer Science in the Digital Age," which states: "The current state of computer science education is unacceptable at a time when computing is driving job growth and new scientific discovery."

Here's how you can work with your school to develop computer science courses. Check out the CSTA's comprehensive standards for K-12 computer science classes that provide a three-level framework. The first level, aimed at grades K-6, addresses computer science in the context of other academic subjects. In Level 2, grades 6-9, the concepts are taught either through other subjects or in discrete computer science courses.

Level 3 is divided into three separate courses: "Computer Science in the Modern World" offers content the CSTA believes should be mastered by all students. "Computer Science Principles" and "Topics in Computer Science" are intended for students with special interests in computer science and other computing careers (csta.acm.org).

If your school can't move fast enough, there are online courses your son could enroll in. Check out the free offerings at www.khanacademy.org. Look at area colleges, too. Many offer motivated high school students the opportunity to take courses on campus or online for credit.

Many companies have programs to mentor high school students and sustain interest in computer science and engineering, says Jeannette Wing, head of the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University. She says all sectors -- health care, transportation, manufacturing -- not just the high-tech companies, have been seeking more and more expertise in computing.

Jedd Haberstro, a computer science major at Rochester Institute of Technology and an intern at Apple Inc., says that teacher training is a critical factor in keeping high school students' interest. He agrees that "having a deeper understanding of how computers work and how to control them to do what we want is essential as the world becomes more dependent on technology.

"Everyone headed into the workforce needs a general computing foundation to function in today's world. But does everyone need to know how to program? Maybe not. That's the software engineer's job -- to make the software reliable and easy to use."

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)