Education funding still falls short despite federal stimulus infusion - Business First of Louisville:

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That was the sentiment of an eight-member panek of education, training and government expertd gathered by the Soutu Florida Business Journal to examine howthe $787 billion federa stimulus package is impacting the region’ds education and workforce training The panel marked the thire in the Business Journal’s ongoing stimulus series, aimedf at tracking and analyzing the flow of moneyh from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into South Florida’s Legislature was the only one nationall y to request a federal waiver that allowed it to take moneyg from education and replace it with stimulus dollars while other states used stimulus dollars to augment the budget.
The situatio concerned paneliststate Sen. Eleanor Sobel. “We are not starting at the starting line. The school district in Broward County and those throughout the state are startin behind thestarting line,” Sobel said. “They have had problems for yearz and they areall scrambling.” Veteran educato r Robert Parks, a member of the Broward County Schook Board, said, “Many of the large urban districts in the natio are afraid of one which is basically a bait and switch with thoswe dollars.” What’s even more worrisome to some experts is that the stimuluds money will eventually run out.
“I’ m really concerned about in three years; what’s going to said José Vicente, president of ’s North Campus. “Thi is a Band-Aid.” He said the college’s operating budgety was cut $22 million while the stimulu s money wasonly $13 million. Parkss said Broward County’s school system has cut $1.4 billionm from its construction budget in addition to furloughing 700 teachere and51 administrators. “We’ve closedf all of our school offices forthe summer. We don’t have summerr school anymore,” Parks said.
would have been looking at cuttinv its budget byabout $30 million without $12 million in stimulus funds, said Dorothy K. the university’s associate VP for financiap affairs and budget The university cut 30 positionsand “had we not had the stimuluxs dollars it could have been much more George Hanbury, executive VP and COO of , said the $1.3 billio n in stimulus funds given to the state relieved pressurde on the Legislature to further reducd support for Florida Resident Access Grants (FRAG), a key sources of money for but he pointed out that the grants used to be $3,000 a year for studentsz and are now $2,529.
The amount is important to students, who find enrollment caps at state universitiesz and turn to NSU and otherprivatd institutions. He also said that universities are workinb together to apply for federaolstimulus funding. NSU has a collaborative proposa l with and FAU fora $50 million research building with wet labs, businessw incubator space and offices for the U.S. Geologicalk Survey, which is helping oversee Evergladew restoration. “We have shovel-ready projects we have submittexd to the Governor and in the next 60 days we coulxput 1,000 people to work,” Hanburh said. The competition for these typesof projects, is fierce.
FAU is getting about $12 million in direct infusionj from the federalstimulus package, but the university also is seekinhg money from the for labs and Russell said. April was the month to submirt applications and the results are expected by The strongest flowof money, so far, appears to be for programes that help the jobless as the state’s unemployment rate has hit 10.2