Vt. awaits $94M in stimulus funds
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By Cristina Kumka Staff Writer - Published: July 1, 2009
Vermont has met the deadline to apply for $94 million in education stimulus funding from the federal government — now it's a waiting game to see when that money will come.
Although tagged "education," and allocated through the U.S. Department of Education, the first wave of money — about $47 million — will be put toward the state's growing budget deficit and economic development initiatives and not directly to schools, a state official in charge of the funding application said Tuesday.
Tom Evslin, the state's chief recovery officer, submitted the request for State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money late Monday, two days before the application was officially due.
The money is intended to stabilize the state's existing resources for two years.
He said the state will not supply money directly to schools for numerous specific proposals those schools submitted to the state Department of Education by June 30, but rather, the money will be used as the state Legislature voted to appropriate it.
The state budget calls for the first $38.5 million to make up for $23 million in shortfalls for all schools in the $1.3 billion state Education Fund, support public colleges with $9 million and fund growth in teachers' retirement with about $6.75 million.
A second category of the SFSF funding the state applied for amounts to $17.1 million or $8.5 million in the first year, to be used for public safety and economic development at the state's discretion.
Evslin said there will be no change to what schools normally do, except for not being so strapped for funding next year and having to squeeze their budgets.
He said the boost to the Education Fund to be made with the SFSF funding will allow school districts to hold their spending at 2008 or 2009 levels, whichever is higher.
For schools that applied for stimulus funding through the state, their specific proposals may have to wait if those projects fall outside the government's criteria for the first wave of money, Evslin said.
"Lots of schools around the state applied for money … sent requests for shovel-ready projects," he said. "That was before they found out how limited the discretionary funding was."
In 2012, when the stimulus funding dries up, the state will at least have the obligation of paying at 2008 or 2009 levels, absent a free influx of cash, Evslin noted.
The only local school control over the first wave of funding may come in the form of an approximate $50 million in additional Title 1 or IDEA money for impoverished or disabled students those schools could have applied for, state officials have said.
"Those (funds) are given out by existing formulas," Evslin said.
cristina.kumka@rutland herald.com
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