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Source: McCook Gazette
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Ben Nelson welcomed an announcement by the U.S. Department of Education that Nebraska will receive more than $191 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for schools and to stop teacher layoffs as the state deals with strains on the state budget. The state will be eligible to apply for another $94 million in economic stimulus funds this fall.
"These funds will save Nebraska jobs that would have been on the chopping block due to fallout from the national economic downturn on state revenues," said Senator Nelson. "Not only would layoffs and pay cuts have directly impacted hundreds of teachers, they also would have negatively impacted thousands of children in schools across the state."
"Had Senator Nelson not stepped up to provide this relief in the economic stimulus package, there would be very little money for K-12 education in our state budget," said Jess Wolf, President of the Nebraska State Education Association. "These funds will help protect hundreds of teachers' jobs and educational programs across the state."
This funding is in addition to the $67 million in education funds already received by the state. According to the Department of Education, Nebraska received $24 million in Title I funding and nearly $40 million in IDEA funding on April 1, representing 50% of the Title I and IDEA funding available to the state. On that same date, Nebraska also received $1.5 million in Vocational Rehab funds and $416,000 in Independent Living funds. On April 10, Nebraska received more than $850,000 in Impact Aid funding.
According to the Department of Education, in order to receive today's funds, Nebraska provided assurances that it will collect, publish, analyze and act on basic information regarding the quality of classroom teachers, annual student improvements, college readiness, the effectiveness of state standards and assessments, progress on removing charter caps and interventions in turning around underperforming schools. The state will also report the number of jobs saved through Recovery Act funding, the amount of state and local tax increases averted, and how funds are used.
Sen. Nelson played a key role in the passage of the $787 billion stimulus bill. He worked with a bipartisan group of nearly 20 Senators to better focus The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on tax cuts for the middle class and job creation for millions of Americans. Senator Nelson led the group through the initial bill line by line, dollar by dollar, to reduce spending and cut out $108 billion of inefficient or less-stimulative spending. The bipartisan group helped the improved bill win congressional approval. President Obama signed it into law February 17, 2009.
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