Will the Stimulus Save Teachers?

The money for schools is rolling in, but it may not mean the end of pink slips for teachers. What you should know....

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The largest single amount of money ever spent on education —$115 billion—is starting to flow into schools as part of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) signed into law by President Obama in February. Of that grand total, $44 billion is headed to states right now, with another round of funds to come later this year. With all this cash suddenly landing on your district’s doorstep, what can you expect?

As K–12 teachers, your job security is contingent on where this money goes. In districts that are facing cuts, the money will save some jobs but not all—and that, of course, is causing great anxiety, as well as controversy and debate. After all, if there’s money coming in, isn’t keeping teachers in the classroom the most obvious way to spend it?

Over the past few weeks, administrators have been wary of divulging any information about how the stimulus dollars will be spent once they arrive. They argue that the money will be on their desks, but their hands may be tied. In certain cases, this will be true. A significant portion of the funds will come to districts already earmarked, primarily for Title I schools and for students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

What remains is a grand total of $53.6 billion in state aid for schools, aimed to help them manage budget shortfalls and, yes, prevent layoffs. According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, these State Fiscal Stabilization Fund dollars (SFSF) are intended to spur long-term education reform, but also to save as many teacher positions as possible. For the most part, administrators are anxious to do just that.

Priority #1: teachers
Even before learning what her district’s spending requirements would be, Cindy Stevenson, superintendent of Jefferson County (CO) Public Schools, knew what her primary concern was. “Our number-one priority is to save jobs,” Stevenson says. “In our own planning process, we had to reduce staffing, but now the stimulus could put money back [into staffing],” she says. With incoming federal funds, Jefferson public schools hopes to salvage some of the 500 positions it had grudgingly proposed to cut over the next three years due to budget cuts.

In even more good news on the state level, Alabama recently announced that thanks to the discretion of its governor, Bob Riley, who is working to cobble together a total of $1 billion from three different areas of the stimulus, the state will be able to save roughly 2,600 teaching jobs (although that is down from the initial number of 3,800 the state had hoped for). “It’s news that, quite honestly, we didn’t see coming four, five, or six months ago,” state schools superintendent Joe Morton told The Huntsville Times. “We can … prevent layoffs, and actually in some cases hire new teachers when we have retirements.”

Not All Good News
But there are some problems with using the money to save teaching positions. One is that this incoming flow of cash will cease after two years. So although districts are hungry to keep their teachers, if the stimulus money is dedicated to shoring up payrolls, what happens when the money runs out? “Unless the funding in the state changes or the stimulus continues, we won’t be able to sustain the jobs we’re saving now,” Stevenson says.

The stimulus is also simply not enough to save all teaching jobs in the hardest-hit states. In California, for example, the state’s public schools, colleges, and universities are facing more than $11 billion in budget cuts. In March, California issued 26,000 pink slips to teachers who may not have their jobs after the school year ends in June. No matter what money is poured into the state in the coming months, top administrators say the layoffs are unavoidable. In Los Angeles County Unified, Superintendent Ray Cortines has remarked that while laying off teachers—and thus creating larger class sizes—is clearly not in the best interest of students, he still must go ahead and eliminate some 4,700 teaching positions.

In another worst-case scenario, some governors are arguing over the use of the federal funds—and ultimately, in some cases, rejecting them. Mark Sanford, Republican governor of South Carolina, has twice asked permission from the White House to use $700 million in stimulus funds to pay down state debt, rather than put it into education. The federal government firmly rejected both requests. If funding does not arrive, argues the state education department (run by an elected Democrat), 2,600 jobs in education could be cut, including 1,500 teacher positions.

Change Keeps Coming
In addition to the funds flowing into schools now, Secretary Duncan has full jurisdiction over the distribution of $5 billion of the stimulus, which he calls “Race to the Top” grants. He will dole out the funds to states that show progress in four areas, including enhancing teacher distribution. Although teacher equity is language also found in NCLB, Obama’s administration is reiterating the importance of good teachers working in our poorest schools.

Secretary Duncan is also pushing school leaders to think outside the box and not settle for the status quo. Some of the changes he is suggesting include a longer school day and school year. So if you keep your job—and we certainly hope that you do—still expect to see some shake-up in your school. With a little luck and a lot of hard work, these changes will support teachers’ needs and improve the success of students. 

ARRA
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the official name for the stimulus package

shovel-ready
Describes projects that are on the books and ready to go, pending funding

Legacy projects
Projects, such as school repair or teacher training, that have long-term benefits

Funding Cliff
What long-term projects face when their short-term funding runs out; the federal government is warning districts against investing in initiatives that won’t survive when the funding stops in two years

Race to the Top
$5 billion in competitive grants reserved from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to be awarded to states and districts that show gains in explicitly outlined goals, including improving the distribution of high-quality teachers and improving data systems; grants will be awarded in two rounds: fall 2009 and spring 2010

With so many districts struggling to keep teachers in their jobs, talking about pouring money into technology is tricky. After all, a computer can’t teach a roomful of kids. But educational technology does have the ability to reach the goals set out by the Department of Education for the stimulus: to spend quickly while also creating long-term impact. Additionally, technology has $900 million dedicated solely to it through Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT).

Stimulus Gives Ed Tech a Boost
Mark Schneiderman, director of education policy for the Software Information Industry Association, argues that there is also room for tech in other aspects of the stimulus. “Most of the stimulus either explicitly or implicitly includes technology approaches as allowed usage of funds, including Title I and IDEA,” he says. Districts can use funds from those two streams to invest in data systems, software systems, and IEP management tools and applications that will support both poor and special education students. Twenty-five percent of EETT funds must also go toward professional development for teachers. 

Jacqueline Heinze is a contributing editor at Scholastic Administr@tor.

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