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Stimulus funding for local schools announced

Wisconsin schools will receive $366 million in federal stimulus money to help students living in poverty and those with disabilities.

That amount is about 30 percent of more than $1.2 billion the state expects to get under the federal law for education.

Statewide, $218 million will go toward the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which supports special education and early academic and behavioral work.

The other $148 million will go to the Title 1 program, which supports educational services for students from low-income families.

The Janesville School District will get about $2.69 million.

Superintendent Karen Schulte said she's "absolutely thrilled" to get the money, but her staff is not yet clear on how the federal government will restrict its use.

All of the state's school districts will get at least part of the money, the state education department said.

Schulte said she wants to use the money to improve student achievement, especially math and reading scores. She also wants to give special attention to groups whose scores tend to be low, such as the homeless, students of color and those from low-income families.

"These funds may give us the ability to do so, so that's exciting to me," Schulte said.

Schulte said her staff will meet to figure out how to best use the money.

Gov. Jim Doyle announced the state's share of the money last week.

Doyle warned that because the money is expected to be available only once, schools that spend it on new programs would find themselves "in deep trouble."

Schulte agreed, saying she wants to avoid creating new programs that would have no source of funding when the stimulus money runs out.

The Janesville district's reading of the rules is that it could use money to pay a salary of someone who otherwise would be laid off, Schulte said, but it cannot use the money to pay a salary of an existing employee.

Edgerton School District Superintendent Norm Fjelstad said his district will end up hiring new special-education teachers while laying off other teachers because of the way the funds are restricted.

The money must be spent over the next two school years, but most of it must be spent by September 2010, Schulte said.

Only 15 percent of the Title 1 money can be spent in the 2010-11 school year, Schulte said, while 25 percent of the special education money can be carried over.

The Department of Public Instruction plans training sessions to help school districts spend the money wisely and avoid making commitments now they can't sustain once the federal money goes away, said Elizabeth Burmaster, state superintendent of public instruction.

Federal funding covers about 18 percent of special education costs, but with the additional money, that will increase to about 29 percent, the governor's office said. That is still short of its decades-old commitment to fund 40 percent. The federal government has never made good on that promise.

The $366 million is not being used to help the state address its projected $5 billion budget hole. However, districts can use it to pay for expenses that otherwise might fall to property taxes, Doyle said.

The state is planning to receive another $877 billion under the stimulus law for schools, which largely is being used to replace state funding for general aid. The state will also apply to get some of $6.5 billion additional in grants for specific districts, Doyle said.