States not facing teacher layoffs get federal money from education jobs bill anyway

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Daily Caller:


States not facing teacher layoffs get federal money from education jobs bill anyway
By Chris Moody - The Daily Caller

With the passage of a $26 billion aid package Tuesday to help states pay for Medicaid and teacher salaries, most state budgets will get some help in paying for education programs, but states not facing massive teacher layoffs and cutbacks are also set to receive millions in federal money.

The federal government estimates that the bill will save 161,000 teaching jobs, but North Dakota, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alaska and a handful of other states have kept their educational pay rolls full despite the recession, which has drastically lowered government revenues around the country. Since the new bill provides funds based on state population and the number of children in school, these states will receive funds even if their budgets are in the black. This has some employees at state education departments wondering exactly how they will spend all the fresh cash.

Arkansas, for example, has a fully funded teaching staff for the coming year, but the state will still receive up to $91 million for teaching jobs.

“We’ll hopefully put that money to some very good use and be able to further some initiatives here that we’ve been working on,” said Julie Johnson Thompson, director of communication at Arkansas Department of Education. “I don’t think there will be a lot of new positions created. I’m not sure that we’d need to create new positions with the money because we have not had any funding cutbacks.”

Other state education departments voiced similar concerns with the bill, questioning the practicality of how an infusion of money that will not reach the state until September at the earliest can really make an impact on the immediate semester. Many districts around the country begin their first semesters in late August.

In Alaska for instance, school districts made hiring decisions for teachers last May, and apportioned the children in each class based upon those numbers. Although the teaching jobs are filled, the state will still receive $24 million under the bill, and a state official asserted that it probably would not go to adding new teachers.

“If this money becomes available September 25, it’s not clear to us exactly how districts can use it,” said Eric Fry, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Education. “What would they do, bring in a teacher a month into the school year and reapportion the kids in the classroom?” Fry added that his questions were merely based on the practicality of the matter, and not intended to deride nor support the measure.

A spokesmen for the U.S. Department of Education addressed the issue in a media conference call Tuesday, and explained that school districts not in need of the funds could use them to pay salaries of support staff, tutors, counselors, and on-campus therapists.

“There is a fairly broad spectrum of personnel that money can be used to support,” said Carmel Martin, assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Education. “Often in school districts where the teachers were not laid off, many times districts were able to do that by cutting other critical services. So this money could be used to support some of the service in the form of salaries and compensation of benefits.”

If needed, the bill also allows for schools to use the funds for the next school year and can be used to raise teacher salaries.