Even with the potential for receiving millions of dollars in new federal aid for the 2010-2011 school year, many states and local education agencies (LEA) across the country fear that more staff lay-offs and other school budget cuts will be necessary when the money runs out. Of the $26 billion state aid bill signed by the President on August 10, 2010, $10 billion was allocated under Public Law No. 111-226 to the new Federal Education Jobs Fund (Ed Jobs) program for the specific purpose of saving or creating education jobs for the 2010-2011 school year.
The Governor of each state that wishes to receive an award from the Ed Jobs program must submit an application to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) no later than September 9, 2010. According to USDE‘s “Initial Guidance to States on the Education Jobs Fund Program” published August 13, 2010, the Secretary anticipates awarding funds within two weeks after the submission of an approvable application. States receiving awards must use the funds only to make awards to LEAs to support elementary and secondary education. The State must distribute the funds to LEAs through the State’s primary elementary and secondary funding formulae or based on local educational agencies’ relative shares of funds under Part A of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Under Public Law No. 111-226, Ed Jobs program awards to LEAs “may be used only for compensation and benefits and other expenses, such as support services, necessary to retain existing employees, to recall or rehire former employees, and to hire new employees, in order to provide early childhood, elementary, or secondary educational and related services.” The Ed Jobs program is expected to save or restore millions of education jobs across the country, including at least 2,700 in Colorado, 1,400 in Nevada, 1,800 in Iowa, 5,700 in Illinois, and 16,500 in California. However, since the funding is only for one year, many LEAs fear that staff hired or re-hired with Ed Jobs program funds will have to be laid off for the 2011-2012 school year. To some, this outcome seems worse than not getting the federal assistance at all, but Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle is reported by Education Week on August 13th as saying that such arguments don’t make sense in light of the urgent needs states and residents have right now. Education Week quoted Governor Doyle as stating that “We cannot ask a second-grader to come back and complete their studies five years from now when the economy has turned around. The education we provide now will be the strength of our state and the nation for decades to come.” However, even though the funds are welcomed by most, concerns remain that the program is a stop-gap and not a long-term solution to the budget crisis that currently faces LEAs.
About Patsy Crawford, Esq.
Patsy Crawford, Director of Legal Services, PCG Education, has over 30 years of legal experience and is responsible for providing legal and regulatory compliance support to the PCG Education management team. Since joining the firm in 1997, Patsy has worked closely with school district administrators and PCG Education managers and consultants to coordinate with state and federal Medicaid agencies to protect and improve billing programs for school districts. She has provided direct legal support to PCG Education projects in multiple states across the country. She prepares the PCG Education Legal Brief newsletter that provides legal and regulatory updates on Medicaid and education issues and is distributed to school districts throughout the country. Patsy authors content for the PCG Education Resource Center (http://www.publicconsultinggroup.com/educationlaw/), which provides an online ‘library’ of legal resources and news updates for PCG staff and the education community. From 1997 to 2003, Patsy served as Project Operations Manager for the Chicago Public Schools Health Services Management program and was instrumental in achieving revision of Illinois rules to enhance school-based Medicaid billing. She served as Project Manager for Saint Paul Public Schools for two years and helped to implement the first installation of PCG’s EasyTrac™ electronic service documentation tool for Medicaid fee-for-service billing. Patsy also developed the first concept of PCG’s EasyAOC™ electronic documentation tool for Medicaid administrative claiming. She was instrumental in significantly expanding PCG Education’s client base in Illinois.
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