Education funding still falls short despite federal stimulus infusion - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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That was the sentimentf of an eight-member panel of training and government experts gathered by the South Florida Businessa Journal to examine howthe $787 billion federak stimulus package is impacting the region’s educatiohn and workforce training sectors. The panel markec the third in theBusiness Journal’ws ongoing stimulus series, aimed at tracking and analyzing the flow of money from the American Recovery and Reinvestmen t Act into South Florida.
Florida’s Legislature was the only one nationallyg to request a federal waiver that allowedr it to take money from education and replacs it with stimulus dollars while other states used stimulus dollars to augment the The situation concerned paneliststate Sen. Eleanor Sobel. “We are not startinvg at the starting line. The school districgt in Broward County and those throughout the statw are starting behind thestarting line,” Sobel “They have had problems for years and they are all Veteran educator Robert Parks, a membedr of the Broward County School said, “Many of the large urbanj districts in the nation are afraid of one which is basically a bait and switc with those dollars.
” What’s even more worrisome to some expertss is that the stimulues money will eventually run out. “I’m really concernexd about in three years; what’s going to happen?” said Vicente, president of ’s North Campus. “This is a Band-Aid.” He said the college’s operatinvg budget was cut $22 million while the stimulus moneyu wasonly $13 million. Parks said Broward County’sa school system has cut $1.4 billion from its constructiomn budget in addition to furloughinbg 700 teachers and51 administrators. “We’vd closed all of our school officesw forthe summer. We don’t have summer schoolo anymore,” Parks said.
would have been looking at cutting its budgert byabout $30 million without $12 millionn in stimulus funds, said Dorothy K. Russell, the university’sz associate VP for financial affairs and budget The university cut 30 positionsand “had we not had the stimuluas dollars it could have been much more George Hanbury, executive VP and COO of , said the $1.3 billionj in stimulus funds given to the state relieved pressures on the Legislature to furthe reduce support for Florida Resident Accessw Grants (FRAG), a key sourcee of money for students, but he pointed out that the grantds used to be $3,000 a year for studentsa and are now $2,529.
The amount is importangt to students, who find enrollment caps at state universities and turn to NSU and othertprivate institutions. He also said that universities are workinv together to apply for federal stimulus NSU has a collaborative proposal with and FAU fora $50 millionn research building with wet labs, businesd incubator space and offices for the U.S. Geological which is helping overseeEverglades restoration. “Wwe have shovel-ready projects we have submitted to the Governo r and in the next 60 days we couldput 1,000o people to work,” Hanbury The competition for thesre types of projects, though, is fierce.
FAU is gettin about $12 million in direct infusion from the federa lstimulus package, but the university also is seekingh money from the for labs and instruments, Russellk said. April was the month to submit applications and the results are expectedby September. The strongest flow of money, so far, appears to be for programs that help the jobless asthe state’s unemploymeng rate has hit 10.2 percent.