Remember, the Congressional representative is important, but his or her staff is essential. Helpful representatives and their staffs can oversee the design of competitions and numbers of awards made to small schools through federal procurement. This serves their present and future constituencies. State discretionary grants are usually made in response to proposals, but small schools seldom get their fair share of these funds. The application process can be burdensome, particularly when people are stretched across multiple responsibilities.
Some states assign an internal advocate for small schools within the state department of education.
This person is responsible for streamlining the proposal application process. Each slate of successful awards is then analyzed to determine whether small schools have a fair share of the state's resources. Small schools within a state, within a region, or from across the nation can develop grant proposals collaboratively and share intelligence about the grant awards process by taking turns evaluating grants. When staff and community members volunteer to evaluate grants, the insights they gain can be shared with other potential small school applicants. Foundations are a final source of additional funds.