Friday, July 17, 2009

And about that stimulus money...

For fiscal year 2010 (which started July 1), the Worcester Public Schools are receiving $51.2 million dollars from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (or ARRA, or what we're calling stimulus funds). $32.3 million are straight from the fed, $19 million through the state (State Fiscal Stabilization Funds).
Originally, the below mentioned IDEA and Title 1 money were going to expand programs (remember all that about training and technology?). Unfortunately, the state budget has cut back so severely that all of that money is going to simply maintain current services.
The federal money is largely going to maintain current services and do a bit of staff development. Beyond that, we are allow to hold some of it over for next year (and, to editorialize here, I'm glad that someone learned something from Joseph and the Egyptian famine: seven lean years, remember?), which the Administration has recommended, saving $8.1 million for FY11 (aka, the funding cliff). Also, the administration is already recommending that any money saved from anything this year be saved for next year (they'll need to juggle things to do so, as they can only carry forward stimulus funds. I think we can see below that this won't be a problem.).
If you want any more on where the money is going, let me know. I think it's been a pretty dense reading day here, already!

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