 |
Perry formally applies for $4B in stimulus money for education
12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, July 2, 2009
AUSTIN – On the last day to do so, Gov. Rick Perry formally applied Wednesday for $4 billion in federal stimulus money to fill gaps and boost state education needs.
In total, Texas is in line to receive about $16 billion in federal money over the next year that Perry and other Republican governors have criticized as Washington-style free spending. The funding is designed to spur jobs and soften the economic downturn, especially in transportation, education and health.
State lawmakers already have counted the federal, one-time education money in the budget Perry signed last month. And some public school administrators, including Dallas Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, raised questions over how it was allocated.
At the Texas Association of School Administrators meeting this week in Austin, Hinojosa and other school leaders expressed displeasure that lawmakers decided to leave the state's $9 billion Rainy Day fund untouched, but supplanted education funding needs with the $3.25 billion in stimulus spending.
The federal infusion helps give school districts about a 2 percent increase in funding. And lawmakers mandated that half of the new money go toward an $800 across-the-board teacher pay raise.
The Dallas school district is struggling with budget shortfalls, and last month laid out plans to cut more than 200 teaching and counseling jobs.
Because the money flows directly to school districts, there are some rumblings about whether the state can dictate how the stimulus funds are spent, but lawmakers are fairly confident that their decisions will prevail.
"We're all pretty much in agreement whether the state can mandate a pay raise," said Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, an expert in school finances. "There's not anticipation that the federal government will say you can't give the pay raises you've agreed to give."
Besides the $3.25 billion for public schools, Perry also requested about $338 million for higher education and about $400 million for education services.
In his application to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Perry asserted that school funding and student performance is a priority in the state.
"After a great deal of review and hard work, Texas leaders determined that federal rules pertaining to [stimulus funds] do not commit Texas to future revenue or spending obligations," Perry said.
He said the federal money will "help significantly increase public school funding and funding for other important government programs."
Create A Screen Name
Screen names can only consist of letters and numbers.
Your screen name will appear to everyone.
NOTE: You cannot change, delete,
or edit your screen name once you hit "Save".
RSS
E-Mail newsletters
You must be logged in to contribute. Log in | Register Now!
You are logged in as screenname | Log Out
You are logged in, but do not have a "screen" name. Create a Screen Name