California State University East Bay

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California State University East Bay

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California State University East Bay

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Recovery Funds Target California Education System

As the recession continues to hit California, the federal government is providing some much needed relief; however the impacts are yet to be felt.
On August 17, The United States Government added nearly $500 million to the more than $10 billion which has been made available to California through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stipulated that the funds would be used in tandem with research to strategically aid California’s struggling educational system.
More than just throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into California’s budget, the aid includes $350 million in School Improvement Grants and $72 million in Education Technology Grants.
These are meant to target specific problem areas in the public education system which have adversely affected California’s ability to compete with other states.
According to the National Education Association California ranks 26th in the nation for current expenditures per student in public K-12 schools.
The newly appropriated funds have come after the Department of Education announced that recovery dollars were responsible for the creation of 47,000 California educational jobs in 2010.
This news should give cause for optimism, however the Federal money only acts as a counterbalance to California’s crippling financial woes.
The California Teachers Association reports that 26,000 education jobs were lost last year, putting the true number of jobs created at 21,000. This is still great news considering the Department of Labor puts California’s unemployment rate at 12.3% for the month of June. By comparison the national unemployment rate was 8.9% in 1930, a year after the stock market crash of 1929.
Bay Area schools have yet to reap the benefits of financial stimulus.
Oakland Education Association President Betty Olsen-Jones says that California, “left us which a larger debt then when they came in to fix it” following six years of state control over the Oakland Unified School District.
The Hayward Unified School District is facing a similar state takeover if they don’t reconcile a $6 million deficit after their budget was slashed by $12 million in May. Last year Hayward schools were forced to layoff 131 employees. Statewide, funding for education has been cut by $17 billion since 2008.
Sacramento plans on funding new programs which are designed to fix education in California and not simply keep it afloat.
Governor Schwarzenegger’s Deputy Press Secretary Andrea McCarthy stated that, “Throwing more money into our broken education system will not benefit students unless it is accompanied by extensive systemic reforms.”
Unfortunately, the “broken education system” includes teachers and other school employees who are losing their jobs.
With more and more students demanding a shrinking amount of recourses, financial aid should be seen as a Godsend.
However, with such a large hole to fill it is hard to see any visible signs of improvement.

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Recovery Funds Target California Education System