Federal Help for Vermont Schools and Property Taxpayers
August 10, 2010
The legislation that passed the Senate last week is expected to be signed into law by President Obama. The sorely-needed funds will be released to states or school districts within 45 days.
As the legislation worked its way through Congress, Sanders spoke about it in a video conference with Vermont principals. You can watch the video here.
Vermont Education Commissioner Armando Vilaseca told Vermont Public Radio that
the federal money is very good news and will help postpone the need to fully
implement the $23 million in cuts. "What
that does, it puts it off for a year, it buys us a year to see if something
happens with the economy. Maybe there will be some other efficiencies that we
can come up with; that the voluntary school merger bill will start having, some
folks participating in that and maybe that this one year will help us through
this really tough economic times. So that's good news at a time that we're
releasing some challenging news to school districts." Darren Allen,
a spokesperson for Vermont NEA, told VPR, "That $19 million will go a long
way in helping Vermont achieve its short-term savings goals."
Nationwide, the education funding would avert layoffs of hundreds of thousands of public school teachers. The legislation is expected to provide $10 billion for additional support to local school districts and help keep nearly 140,000 educators employed.
The education funding will be administered by the U.S. Department of Education. After reviewing state applications, the department will make formula allocations to states based on total population and school age population. States will then distribute the funds to school districts. If a state turns down the money, the funds may be sent directly to school boards.
The bill includes provisions to ensure that states use these funds for the preservation of jobs serving elementary and secondary education. This federal funding may not be used for purposes such as equipment, utilities, renovation, or transportation. The bill also prohibits states from using any of these funds to add to "Rainy-Day Funds" or to pay off State debt.
For a detailed analysis of the recently-passed legislation, click here.
