In its fiscal 2011 budget request, the Obama administration has laid out its intention of carrying forward key teacher-effectiveness policies within the economic-stimulus law into the next edition of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In doing so, the budget proposal would invest heavily in competitive grants for new ways of recruiting, training, evaluating, and compensating teachers and principals, dramatically shrink the amount of teacher-quality funding doled out by formula, and consolidate a handful of smaller teacher programs that have fierce congressional defenders. With those issues on the table, proposals that some teacher experts call visionary could prove to be a difficult sell on Capitol Hill. President Barack Obama's budget request for the U.S. Department of Education comes as the first major reconceptualization of federal teacher-quality spending in a decade. Among the new programs is a $950 million Teacher and Leader Innovation Fund, which would support competitive grants for finding ways to promote and compensate educators, and provide incentives for them to take on challenging school assignments. In addition, the budget seeks $405 million to support different "pathways" into teaching, and three programs totaling just over $1 billion focused on improving teacher instruction in core content areas. In all, compared with the current fiscal year, the budget would add $530.5 million in federal teacher spending--all in competitive funding.