Will Federal Stimulus Money Help Local Education?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has assured members of California's congressional delegation that the state will not use federal economic stimulus money earmarked for education to backfill the state's looming budget gap....But some educators fear that the declarations may go by the wayside if the state's finances decline further. The state is already projected to be $8 billion in the red next year, and if several funding propositions on the May ballot aren't approved by voters, that figure could nearly double. "Our concern is with the state of California's budget, the May election and the June [budget] revise, they're going to come back behind the federal dollars and cut state spending on education, and the net [result] is we're going to lose out," said Matt Hill, an official with the Los Angeles Unified School District. The district is weighing layoffs of more than 8,500 employees to cut nearly $600 million from next year's budget.

Federal officials have grown increasingly concerned in recent weeks that several states facing budget shortfalls would circumvent the intent of the more than $100-billion education package, with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan warning that he would "come down like a ton of bricks" on any state that defied him."We're holding back literally billions of dollars for the second round of funding," he said when he released the first installment, of $44 billion, last week. "States that aren't doing the right thing will basically eliminate themselves from competition."

Just when Los Angeles Unified officials need their advice the most, the men and women who help the district secure funding from Sacramento and Washington, D.C., are being laid off to cut costs.

LAUSD's Government Relations Office - staffers with expert knowledge on government funding for schools - is being cut to three people from 11.The office has been busy reading through federal documents ensuring that district staff understands how much federal stimulus money they should be receiving, how they can properly distribute it, and how they can compete for future pots of cash..... The district has been under pressure to reduce its bureaucracy in the face of a $718 million deficit that is expected to grow...."Yes, the government relations office is far from the classroom, but it routinely brings in millions," said Scott Folsom, a longtime parent advocate. "It's a return on a investment."