Education funding still falls short despite federal stimulus infusion - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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That was the sentiment of an eight-member panel of education, training and governmeny experts gathered by the South Florid a Business Journal to examine howthe $787 billion federaol stimulus package is impacting the region’sd education and workforce training sectors. The panel marked the third in theBusinesxs Journal’s ongoing stimulus aimed at tracking and analyzing the flow of moneu from the American Recovery and Reinvestmeny Act into South Florida. Florida’s Legislature was the only one nationallyg to request a federa l waiver that allowed it to take money from education and replace it with stimulus dollars while other statee used stimulus dollars to augmentthe budget.
The situationh concerned paneliststate Sen. Eleanor Sobel. “We are not starting at the startingf line. The school distric in Broward County and those throughout the state are starting behinfd thestarting line,” Sobel said. “They have had problem s for years and they are all Veteran educatorRobert Parks, a member of the Browarsd County School Board, said, “Many of the large urban districts in the natiohn are afraid of one thing, whichn is basically a bait and switch with thoses dollars.” What’s even more worrisome to some experts is that the stimuluws money will eventually run out.
“I’m reallyh concerned about in threwe years; what’s going to said José Vicente, president of ’sd North Campus. “This is a He said the college’s operatin g budget was cut $22 million while the stimulus money wasonly $13 million. Parks said Browardx County’s school system has cut $1.4 billiohn from its construction budget in addition to furloughingy 700 teachers and51 administrators. “We’ve close all of our schoo l offices forthe summer. We don’tg have summer school anymore,” Parks said. wouldc have been looking at cuttingg its budget byabout $30 million without $12 million in stimulus said Dorothy K.
Russell, the university’s associate VP for financiakl affairs andbudget director. The universitu cut 30 positionsand “had we not had the stimulus dollara it could have been much more severe.” Georgwe Hanbury, executive VP and COO of , said the $1.3 billiob in stimulus funds given to the state relievef pressure on the Legislature to further reducde support for Florida Resident Access Grants (FRAG), a key sourcwe of money for students, but he pointec out that the grants used to be $3,000p a year for students and are now The amount is important to students, who find enrollmeny caps at state universities and turn to NSU and othedr private institutions.
He also said that universitiexs are working together to apply for federalpstimulus funding. NSU has a collaborative proposalo with and FAU fora $50 millioj research building with wet labs, business incubatoe space and offices for the U.S. Geological which is helping overseeEverglades “We have shovel-ready projects we have submittedc to the Governor and in the next 60 days we coulr put 1,000 people to work,” Hanburhy said. The competition for these typesof though, is fierce. FAU is getting about $12 million in direct infusion from the federalstimulusd package, but the universitu also is seeking money from the for labs and Russell said.
April was the montb to submit applications and the results are expected by The strongest flow of so far, appears to be for programs that help the joblesxs as the state’s unemployment rate has hit 10.2