Duncan on Recovery: 325,000 Education Jobs Created or Saved So Far
| Date Posted: November 4, 2009 |
Washington, Nov. 2 — The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has so far created or retained about 325,000 education jobs around the country, the U.S. Department of Education said today in a report.
"These jobs include positions for teachers, principals, and support staff in elementary and secondary schools, and educational, administrative, and support personnel in institutions of higher education," ED said in the 248-page report on education-related jobs data. "In addition, approximately 73,000 other jobs (including both education and non-education positions) were saved or created from the SFSF [State Fiscal Stabilization Fund] Government Services Fund, Federal Work Study, and Impact Aid fund. Thus the total number of jobs paid for through the Department's ARRA grants is close to 400,000." That is over half of the 640,000 positions ARRA saved across all sectors.
Additionally, ARRA helped mitigate higher education tuition increases in 31 states, officials said.
But beyond the jobs figures — which many experts argue are inexact at best — the data say little about what education services ARRA funded, said Jennifer Cohen, education policy analyst for the New America Foundation. "You don't get too much more information beyond" how much was spent by program, like Title I or Enhancing Education through Technology, she said. The public, she said, lacks information on "how much was spent on instruction, and within that how much was spent on teacher salaries and how much was spent on capital and materials and those sorts of things."
More Education Details
ED's detailed state-by-state summary of about $67 billion in formula funds awarded as of Sept. 30, 2009, covers $35.4 billion delivered under the SFSF and $12.6 billion under Title I and other grant programs. The report, an update of an earlier jobs analysis, includes a description of how ARRA restored education budgets in each state, as well as a compilation of reported state use of ARRA funds by program.
ED noted that SFSF has had the largest impact on jobs to date, mainly because it provided states with the flexibility to address budget shortfalls. The bulk of job savings or creation from SFSF has already been identified in most states, ED said in the report.
In a conference call with reporters, ED Secretary Arne Duncan said the job numbers only reflect a "point in time," and that state-to-state differences in the job estimates reflect that fact that not all have drawn down funding at the same pace. They are "good-faith estimates," he said.
"And," Duncan said, "we're not done," noting that another $30 billion — including $5 billion for education reform — remains to be obligated by Sept. 30, 2010.
Cohen said local educational agencies might not get a lot of use out of the data. "I don't think there's much value-added for districts from this information," she said about the latest data release. "I think that it's really a transparency issue."
Michael Griffith, senior finance analyst with the Education Commission of the States, credits ED for getting the stimulus spending information out, even if it's imperfectly rendered. "For the timeframe they've had, they've done a good job," he said.
Michael Leachman, a senior policy analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, wrote a paper Oct. 28 noting that the data capture only a portion of the jobs created and saved, mainly because of ARRA's limited reporting requirements, which cover about 16 percent of expenditures through Sept. 30.
"Recipients of ARRA grants and loans, for instance, must report on the jobs that they created or retained," Leachman said, "but such reporting will not capture the jobs that were indirectly generated by the projects in question, such as by suppliers of goods and services to the projects."
Leachman is one of several analysts and groups that have been critical of the quality and quantity of the ARRA data, even as they've saluted the law's level of transparency, which some say is unprecedented in federal spending.
Full Picture Still Unclear
Cohen said that for now, each data record is "so minuscule ... it's really hard to get a big picture, I think." She said the information is more for "federal bureaucrats" than it is for the state and local education community.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the funds have been a "lifeline" given the "magnitude of the downturn" and the layoffs that occurred.
— By Erika Fitzpatrick
"These jobs include positions for teachers, principals, and support staff in elementary and secondary schools, and educational, administrative, and support personnel in institutions of higher education," ED said in the 248-page report on education-related jobs data. "In addition, approximately 73,000 other jobs (including both education and non-education positions) were saved or created from the SFSF [State Fiscal Stabilization Fund] Government Services Fund, Federal Work Study, and Impact Aid fund. Thus the total number of jobs paid for through the Department's ARRA grants is close to 400,000." That is over half of the 640,000 positions ARRA saved across all sectors.
Additionally, ARRA helped mitigate higher education tuition increases in 31 states, officials said.
But beyond the jobs figures — which many experts argue are inexact at best — the data say little about what education services ARRA funded, said Jennifer Cohen, education policy analyst for the New America Foundation. "You don't get too much more information beyond" how much was spent by program, like Title I or Enhancing Education through Technology, she said. The public, she said, lacks information on "how much was spent on instruction, and within that how much was spent on teacher salaries and how much was spent on capital and materials and those sorts of things."
More Education Details
ED's detailed state-by-state summary of about $67 billion in formula funds awarded as of Sept. 30, 2009, covers $35.4 billion delivered under the SFSF and $12.6 billion under Title I and other grant programs. The report, an update of an earlier jobs analysis, includes a description of how ARRA restored education budgets in each state, as well as a compilation of reported state use of ARRA funds by program.
ED noted that SFSF has had the largest impact on jobs to date, mainly because it provided states with the flexibility to address budget shortfalls. The bulk of job savings or creation from SFSF has already been identified in most states, ED said in the report.
In a conference call with reporters, ED Secretary Arne Duncan said the job numbers only reflect a "point in time," and that state-to-state differences in the job estimates reflect that fact that not all have drawn down funding at the same pace. They are "good-faith estimates," he said.
"And," Duncan said, "we're not done," noting that another $30 billion — including $5 billion for education reform — remains to be obligated by Sept. 30, 2010.
Cohen said local educational agencies might not get a lot of use out of the data. "I don't think there's much value-added for districts from this information," she said about the latest data release. "I think that it's really a transparency issue."
Michael Griffith, senior finance analyst with the Education Commission of the States, credits ED for getting the stimulus spending information out, even if it's imperfectly rendered. "For the timeframe they've had, they've done a good job," he said.
Michael Leachman, a senior policy analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, wrote a paper Oct. 28 noting that the data capture only a portion of the jobs created and saved, mainly because of ARRA's limited reporting requirements, which cover about 16 percent of expenditures through Sept. 30.
"Recipients of ARRA grants and loans, for instance, must report on the jobs that they created or retained," Leachman said, "but such reporting will not capture the jobs that were indirectly generated by the projects in question, such as by suppliers of goods and services to the projects."
Leachman is one of several analysts and groups that have been critical of the quality and quantity of the ARRA data, even as they've saluted the law's level of transparency, which some say is unprecedented in federal spending.
Full Picture Still Unclear
Cohen said that for now, each data record is "so minuscule ... it's really hard to get a big picture, I think." She said the information is more for "federal bureaucrats" than it is for the state and local education community.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the funds have been a "lifeline" given the "magnitude of the downturn" and the layoffs that occurred.
— By Erika Fitzpatrick
 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
