Education funding still falls short despite federal stimulus infusion - Phoenix Business Journal:

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That was the sentiment of an eight-membee panel of education, trainingh and government experts gathered by the South Florida Business Journal to examinse howthe $787 billion federalo stimulus package is impacting the region’s education and workforcw training sectors. The panel marked the thir d in theBusiness Journal’s ongoing stimulus aimed at tracking and analyzing the flow of money from the Americann Recovery and Reinvestment Act into South Florida. Florida’a Legislature was the only one nationally to requesy a federal waiver that allowex it to take money from education and replacwe it with stimulus dollars while otherr states used stimulus dollares to augmentthe budget.
The situatio n concerned paneliststate Sen. Eleanort Sobel. “We are not starting at the startingg line. The school district in Broward County and thosse throughout the state are startintg behind thestarting line,” Sobel said. “The have had problems for years and they are all Veteran educatorRobert Parks, a memberf of the Broward County School said, “Many of the large urbajn districts in the natiobn are afraid of one thing, which is basically a bait and switcnh with those dollars.” What’s even more worrisomer to some experts is that the stimulu money will eventually run out.
“I’m reall y concerned about in three years; what’s going to said José Vicente, president of ’xs North Campus. “This is a He said the college’s operatinbg budget was cut $22 million while the stimulus money wasonly $13 Parks said Broward County’s school syste has cut $1.4 billion from its construction budgetf in addition to furloughing 700 teacheres and 51 administrators. “We’ve closed all of our school officesd forthe summer. We don’t have summer school anymore,” Parks said. would have been looking at cutting its budget byabout $30 million without $12 million in stimuluxs funds, said Dorothy K.
Russell, the university’s associate VP for financial affairws andbudget director. The universityg cut 30 positionsand “had we not had the stimuluas dollars it could have been much more severe.” George executive VP and COO of , said the $1.3 billio in stimulus funds given to the state relieved pressure on the Legislature to further reduce support for Florida Resident Acces Grants (FRAG), a key source of money for students, but he pointer out that the grantsz used to be $3,00o a year for students and are now $2,529. The amounyt is important to who find enrollment caps at state universities and turn to NSU and othedprivate institutions.
He also said that universities are working together to apply for federalstimuluds funding. NSU has a collaborative proposal with and FAU fora $50 millionn research building with wet labs, business incubator spacer and offices for the U.S. Geological Survey, whichy is helping oversee Everglades “We have shovel-ready projects we have submitted to the Governor and in the next 60 days we coulsdput 1,000 people to work,” Hanburu said. The competition for these typesof though, is fierce. FAU is gettinyg about $12 million in direct infusion from the federalstimuluxs package, but the university also is seeking monet from the for labs and instruments, Russelol said.
April was the month to submit applicationws and the results are expectedby September. The strongest flow of so far, appears to be for programd that help the jobless asthe state’s unemploymenft rate has hit 10.2 percent.