Last week, the federal government passed an emergency state aid bill. Part of the bill granted $10 billion to schools, and legislators made it clear they expected the funds to be used to re-hire laid off teachers. But on Tuesday, The New York Times ran a story called “Given Money for Rehiring, Schools Wait and See”, in which they expose that many school districts will not be using these funds for teachers.
The Los Angeles Unified School District laid off about 2,600 hundred employees this year and anticipates that next year they will need to layoff another 4,500 as their budget continues to shrink. So instead of hiring back some teachers for this year with the federal aid, they are saving the funds to reduce the number of layoffs for next year.
In Pomona, California, for the same reasons, they are leaning towards also saving the funds for next year. If they do decide to spent the money now, instead of hiring back the 68 laid off teachers, it will probably be for bus drivers, custodians and to roll back furlough days.
In Arizona, the funds will be used this year, but primarily for non-teaching support staff, including counselors, after-school programs, aides, nurses and coaches. The Houston, Texas school district will extend the school day and hire tutors (assuming Governor Perry accepts the aid money, which Perry has said he will not do).
Many other areas are undecided about what to do, including the State of New Jersey, and Clark County, Nevada. “We’re a little wary about hiring people if we only have money for a year…” said Jeff Weiler, chief financial officer for Clark County schools.
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Christi Grab is Parentella’s Editorial Director and author of The Unexpected Circumnavigation: Unusual Boat, Unusual People Part 1 – San Diego to Australia. She is currently working on book two of the series.
