Must schools use the stimulus money to keep teachers?

School officials are trying to figure out whether federal stimulus money must, can or should be used to avoid teacher layoffs.

Arne Duncan (Education Secretary) said he will “come down like a ton of bricks” and withhold the second round of funds from anyone who defies Obama’s wishes.

Duncan outlined a series of steps that states must take to get the next round of dollars. States must report on:

• Teacher quality and evaluation systems.
• School restructuring under the No Child Left Behind law and also on charter schools, which get public dollars but operate with more independence than regular schools. Obama wants to increase their numbers.
• Scores on state and national tests to show whether state standards are rigorous enough.
• States also must report on how many high school graduates go on to earn college credits.
• States also must set up sophisticated data systems to track student performance.

Mrs. Obama told about 350 employees at the Department of Education that President Obama’s nearly $900 billion stimulus package would “prevent teacher layoffs and education cuts in hard-hit states.”

“We need to keep teachers in the classrooms throughout this time,” Mrs. Obama said.


California first to get stimulus money for schools


Education Secretary Arne Duncan released nearly $4 billion to California, the first state to benefit from a special fund for states that was created by the economic stimulus law. Duncan said the money will “save jobs and lay the groundwork for a generation of education reform.”


The fund will replenish state budgets that have been cut or threatened because of the recession. Most of the money is intended for schools, since education accounts for a big share of state spending.
President Barack Obama promises it will rescue hundreds of thousands of teaching jobs.

In California, state officials had initially said they could use the money to fill budget holes. But the state’s congressional delegation, led by House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, pressed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to distribute the money directly to school districts.

Last month, California Education Secretary Glen Thomas wrote the lawmakers that the money would, indeed, be spent on local school needs such as saving teachers’ jobs.

Miller said Friday that “help is on the way.” Nearly 30,000 teachers in California received layoff notices last month. Schwarzenegger said he will send the dollars out quickly.

“We’re the first to pass these dollars immediately to local school districts, and we’re the first to protect teachers’ jobs with Recovery Act dollars,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

The largest teachers’ unions, the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association, are urging governors across the country to distribute the stimulus money to schools.

States would “do a terrible disservice to students” by diverting precious dollars away from schools, AFT president Randi Weingarten and NEA president Dennis van Roekel said in a letter to governors.

An estimated 9 percent of teachers, about 294,000, may face layoffs because of budget cuts, according to a University of Washington study.

Duncan has warned he will come down “like a ton of bricks” and withhold the next round of funds from any state or school district that defies Obama’s wishes.

To get money from the special state aid fund, California and other states had to submit applications that assure they will make progress in several areas, including teacher quality, turning failing schools around, allowing more charter schools to open and reporting whether state academic standards are rigorous enough. States also must set up sophisticated data systems to track student performance.

States must show progress on those fronts to get the next round of stimulus dollars to be distributed in the fall.

Obama’s economic stimulus bill provides an unprecedented amount of money for schools — double the education budget under President George W. Bush — over the next two years.

“Without question the State Fiscal Stabilization Funds will have an immediate and noticeable impact on California’s public schools, colleges, and universities,” said state education chief Jack O’Connell. “These funds will help schools keep teachers and other education staff employed, continue our efforts to improve student achievement, and help our work to close the achievement gap.”

California will get $3.1 billion, $2.6 billion of which will go to K-12 programs. The rest will go toward the University of California and California State University systems.

The stabilization money is different from other stimulus funds earmarked for education in that school district officials must apply for it with the promise that they agree to reforms set forth by the U.S. Department of Education. School districts can apply right now by visiting http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/ar/.

After delivering a stern warning that states and school districts must use their federal stimulus money smartly or risk losing billions more, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and his staff are starting to spell out exactly what they mean by “smartly.”

California will be eligible to apply for another $2 billion this fall. Today’s funding is being made available per California’s successful completion of Part 1 of the State Stabilization Application, which was made available April 1. California is the first state to be approved for the first round of state stabilization funding.

“The $4 billion that California will receive is part of the single largest boost in education funding in recent history,” Duncan said. “The President’s leadership and support from Congress have made this historic investment possible. California can now utilize these funds to save jobs and lay the groundwork for a generation of education reform.”

To date, California has received nearly $1.3 billion in education stimulus funds– representing a combination of funding for Title I, IDEA, Vocational Rehabilitation Grants, Independent Living Grants, Impact Aid dollars and Homeless Education Grants.

On April 1, California received more than $562 million in Title I funding and more than $660 million in IDEA funding. This represents 50 percent of the funding for Title I and IDEA funding that California is eligible for in total. On April 1, California also received more than $28 million in Vocational Rehab funds and more than $5 million in Independent Living funds. One April 10, California received nearly $1.5 million in Impact Aid Funding and nearly $14 million in Homeless Education grants.

In order to receive today’s funds, California provided assurances that they will collect, publish, analyze and act on basic information regarding the quality of classroom teachers, annual student improvements, college readiness, the effectiveness of state standards and assessments, progress on removing charter caps, and interventions in turning around underperforming schools.

As California received billions of dollars Friday to stave off widespread teacher layoffs, the state’s highest elected education official pledged to reform schools, aligning academic standards with other states, rewarding teachers who work in the most challenging classrooms and improving student assessments.

“If we are going to do right by our kids and take advantage of this wave of change, then everything must be on the table, and we need to bring both teachers and management to that table to come up with creative solutions that benefit all students,” state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said in a speech at an education conference in Irvine.

O’Connell’s proposals came the same day the federal government announced it was releasing $3.1 billion in economic stimulus funding earmarked for education to California, money that could help save the jobs of some of the more than 30,000 teachers, administrators and others who have received preliminary layoff warnings in the state’s school districts.