Posted on Mon, Nov. 09, 2009

Despite an infusion of $159 million into Kansas schools this quarter, education leaders said it has helped them only to maintain the status quo.

Kansas schools have so far spent federal stimulus dollars to maintain staff and programs that were threatened by state budget cuts — a move education officials said could put them out of the running for $4 billion in competitive federal grants in the coming months.

In the Wichita school district, about 400 jobs — mostly teachers and teacher trainers — were kept off the chopping block, said chief financial officer Linda Jones.

"They would've seen big changes if we hadn't received it," she said.

Nationally, education jobs made up more than half the estimated 600,000 positions saved or created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Wichita district spent $14.5 million in stimulus money to save about 231 teaching positions that would have been in jeopardy if schools had to bear the full brunt of cuts in state funding per student.

Statewide, schools spent $138.7 million in "back-fill" for cuts in the state budget, said Dale Dennis, deputy commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education.

Most of the rest of the federal money the state received has gone to schools with large numbers of poor students.

Federal money helped Kansas schools keep or create almost 3,000 jobs, but districts still cut 2,100 licensed positions and 1,600 unlicensed positions, Dennis said. Most were vacancies, so few employees became jobless.

Schools are nervous about what happens when federal aid stops in two years, but Dale said additional state cuts expected this year are more pressing.

"That will be up to the Legislature," he said.

" (Schools are) trying to finish this year in the black."

Economic impact

The Wichita school district is among the city's top four employers. The other three traditionally are aircraft manufacturing companies that have shed thousands of jobs in the recession.

The district has roughly 8,000 employees, whose combined duties equal almost 6,800 full-time positions.

"This has saved 400 jobs in Wichita public schools," said Diane Gjerstad, director of government relations. "That's significant."

Keeping those 400 jobs could save an estimated 141 additional jobs, mostly in the retail and service industries, said Jeremy Hill, director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University.

He also estimated that jobs maintained in Wichita could keep $24 million in the area's economy each year and produce $670,000 in taxes for the city over a 10-year period.

Saving education jobs can have unique long-term effects by sustaining the staff to run strong schools that produce well-educated graduates to join the work force, Hill said.

"The whole Wichita area has a really good system," which helps attracts new industry and workers, he said. "We don't want to lose it as a draw."

Hill said it's still too early to tell how the state's economy will recover and whether it can support the 400 jobs when federal stimulus money ends in two years.

"If the economy recovers, having that tax-flow base will help, or it can be a wash," he said. "If the economy is still shaky, you just would've prolonged it, and the jobs would leave then."

Plans for stimulus money

The Wichita school district is set to receive the third-largest amount of Recovery Act money statewide, according to the federal government's Web site. The Kansas Department of Transportation and the state of Kansas came in higher.

Wichita will receive the most money of any district in the state because of its high poverty rate — almost 70 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

Recovery aid has been given to schools in three main ways: supplementing state dollars, increasing money for high-poverty schools, and more special education dollars.

The Wichita district has spent or plans to use federal stimulus aid in these ways:

* $21 million over two years to expand the list of schools receiving aid to help large numbers poor students — known as Title I schools — from 37 to 60. The money buys equipment and hires staff to support at-risk students.

* Save or create almost 100 jobs with Title I dollars. About 70 positions are on the payroll, including 51 teacher trainers. The district has received $843, 215 in Title I money so far.

* $13 million over two years to keep 95 employees — mostly teachers — who work with special education students. The district hasn't received any special education money yet.

* Create eight new AmeriCorps positions and save one job in the homeless program.

* Sell $164.5 million of the district's $370 million bond issue through federal programs that subsidize the interest on the loans.

Future grants

What happens after the influx of federal money dries up is cause for concern to schools nationwide.

"Since it's the year after next, we're a little more wait-and-see," said Jones, the Wichita district's CFO. "We're starting discussions on next year's budget."

She said she finds it hard to believe the federal government would cut off all additional funding in two years, leaving the states to fill the holes the federal money is filling.

More recovery aid will be available to schools next year, but it will be in the form of competitive grants.

Kansas might be at a disadvantage for the grants because it used the federal money to plug holes in the state budget instead of creating new jobs and programs, said Dennis, the deputy education commissioner.

The biggest grant of $4 billion will go to only about a dozen states. Guidelines and deadlines for the grant haven't been set.

Kansas will apply, but Dennis said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been clear on what he wants.

"If you used any money to back-fill, you go to the back of the line," Dennis said.

Reach Lori Yount at 316-268-6269 or lyount@wichitaeagle.com.