More than $100 billion in stimulus money went to education in 2009, but that money is running out and teachers are looking for funding to help American students keep pace in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.

In a search for funding, teachers are turning to grant programs to get the money needed. 

“Teachers are no less ambitious, and yet their resources are not what they should be,” said Ken Paulson, president of the American Society of News Editors and CEO of the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center.

In response to the budget crunches that teachers are facing, Paulson started a grant program that is tied to the First Amendment Center’s “1 for all” campaign.  The grant is to be used to increase awareness of ones rights under to first amendment. Paulson suggests that teachers cast a wide net of possibilities for using the money and attempt to reach as many students in the school as possible.

Georganne Warnock, principal of R.L. Turner High School in Carrollton, Texas, wants the focus of grants to be improving the student work on the entire campus.

“What is the gain in student achievement?” Warnock said.

Warnock has her teachers apply for grants to cover anything from classroom books to new technology. Grants at R.L. Turner have paid for classroom libraries, conferences and computers. 

The National Grant Clearing House is one resource that has helped teachers on the campus find grants.

“I needed help,” said Lynsie Brenner, journalism teacher at Guthrie High School in Guthrie, Okla., echoing the concerns of many journalism teachers across the nation. 

Brenner started looking for grants when she needed to buy classroom materials for her newspaper staff. She found her answer when she looked in the Oklahoman and found a teaching grant worth $7,000.

Brenner had no money in funding, and the grant offered an opportunity to make updates to the program and offer the students more professional tools. The grant allowed her to buy Flip cameras, a printer, a Mac computer, Adobe software, a high-end camera and books.

“It really jump-started our program again,” Brenner said. 

She found that the new items she bought gave her staff real life experiences. The money made such a difference in the newspaper program that the entire school noticed. Students started to ask when the newspaper was coming out, Brenner said. 

However, getting the grant did take time and effort on Brenner’s behalf and the grant came with requirements. Brenner had to attend a one-week conference at Oklahoma University for journalism advisers.  After spending the money, she was also required to do a follow-up report. 

The work for the grant was a fair exchange for the technology she was able to buy, Brenner said.

Brian Heyman, journalism teacher at Pattonville High School in Maryland Heights, Mo., also similarly used a grant to improve the technology in his journalism class. The grant he applied for was worth $750 and was open to everyone in his school district. Heyman said that students needed to get experience of working with the modern technology used in professional newsrooms.

“They don’t have to do it the primitive way, they can do it the new way,” he said.

When he got the grant, Heyman bought three Bamboo Pentouchs, a technology used in newsrooms to edit photos and graphics.

Teachers just have to go out and find it the funding, Heyman said.

“The money is there,” he said, “They are waiting for it to be spent.”