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| 2010 Budget - Status of Federal Stimulus Plan |
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On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The final legislation is over 1,000 pages and makes appropriations to all issue areas of government, including commerce, health, education, and transportation. There are also tax provisions, assistance for unemployed workers, and Medicaid and Medicare changes. The education dollars available to Arizona come in three different pots: a) direct state fiscal relief, known as state stabilization funds; b) secondary federal assistance to schools through existing federal education programs; and c) incentive grants. Arizona expects to receive approximately $1 billion in state stabilization funds. The ARRA requires that 81.8% of the monies be dedicated to education and the remaining 18.2% for other governmental services. In general, we know that these monies come with the following caveats: - The Governor must apply for the funds. - Funding mostly available for two years. - Can be used to backfill education reductions or to reduce state budget shortfalls. - Not designed as permanent assistance. - There are "conditions", including maintenance of effort and restoration of funds at certain levels, which can be waived by the U.S. Department of Education. Additional monies will be available for existing federal education programs such as: - $194.9 million in Title I grants. - $ 12.4 million in educational technology grants. - $194.2 million in IDEA grants. - $331.1 million in Pell Grants (Higher Education) The ARRA allocated $5 billion to the states for competitive grants to meet the following academic goals: a) equity in teacher distribution; b) improvement of data; c) quality assessments; and d) school improvement. States receiving these incentive grants must allocate 50% to their Title I schools. Additionally, threre are innovation grants to fund partnerships between schools and non-profits for the academic goals highlighted above. Since these are competitive grants, it is unknown at this time how much Arizona would receive. Note: Since there can be multiple interpretations of the state distributions, all Arizona allocations should be considered as preliminary and subject to change. Currently, the State is awaiting guidance from the federal government on a variety of implementation issues. Please find additional information at the following links: U.S. Department of Education - ARRA Overview Education Commission of the States Preliminary Title I allocations |