Local school districts are scrambling to prepare for a massive influx of funding from the federal government and questions remain over how the money will eventually be spent.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President
Barack Obamaat a Feb. 17 ceremony in Denver, will pour millions of dollars over the course of the next two school years into existing federal programs such as Title 1-A and IDEA Part B. The two programs, which help benefit low-income and special education students, are set to receive a boost of $25.5 billion nationwide and $127 million in Colorado.
Adams 12 Five Star Schools, which serves much of Thornton, Northglenn, Federal Heights, Broomfield and unincorporated Adams County, will receive approximately $10.4 million in funding for the two programs. Adams County School District 50, which primarily serves Westminster, is set to receive approximately $4.5 million.
Those numbers, however, are constantly changing, district officials say.
The additional federal funds will effectively double the amount of money the district currently receives annually, said
Sandra McClure, director of finance for Adams 50.
"It's an awful lot of money coming in," McClure said.
Those funds can be used for everything from making Title 1 schools more energy efficient to bringing aging facilities into compliance with fire, health and safety rules. That will help districts like Adams 50, which has a high number of Title 1 schools.
Questions remain, however, over how the money can be spent within the guidelines of the programs, McClure said. It's unclear whether funds can be used to hire additional Title 1 teachers and what will happen to the programs after the federal dollars have been spent.
Financial officials with the district will likely know more in coming weeks, but for now they remain in a holding pattern until the state provides clearer guidelines, said
Janelle Albertson, chief communications officer for Adams 12.
"That's the $64,000 question," Albertson said. "There are a lot of moving parts we need to identify, much less get moving."
School districts are not allowed to supplant money which was meant for Title I schools, which will make it difficult to take away money that was already intended for the Title I programs and replace it with the stimulus funds.
Regardless, the boost in funding will help, though impending state budget cuts put a damper on the good news. The state legislature is grappling with how to cut $600 million from the budget this year, with another $400 million gap next year.
Even those numbers could change, though. Officials with Adams 50 were anticipating a $3 million shortfall this year, but the stimulus money could change that figure drastically, McClure said.
In all, Colorado is expected to receive more than $2.8 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to
Federal Funds Information for States, an agency that follows the federal government for the states. Much of that will go toward a State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, which also can be used toward shoring up K-12 and higher education.
Gov.
Bill Ritterrecently set up an accountability and oversight board to help dole out those dollars. In order to help ensure transparency, the governor's office launched a Web site at
www.colorado.gov/recoveryto show how the money is being spent.
The money that's doled out is intended to be spent quickly. The majority of funding for federal school programs could come as early as this spring to be used for the 2009/10 and 2010/11 school years.