This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Dr. Terry Stoops, Director of Education Studies for the John Locke Foundation.
RALEIGH — On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama signed the $814 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. The ARRA or “stimulus” bill set aside $100 billion for education, including more than $1.3 billion for North Carolina public schools over for two years.
This year, the federal gravy train comes to a halt. School districts throughout the state will be forced to cut positions funded by this temporary source of revenue.
As usual, much of the state and local media are in denial. A recent editorial in the Charlotte Observer explained, “Actually, the federal government isn’t cutting funds. That money was a one-time boost to help struggling states during the recession. Policymakers knew those federal dollars would end after two years.”
Observer editors echo the education establishment in North Carolina. Neither appears willing to fault the Obama administration for forcing school districts to eliminate hundreds of teachers and support staff positions.
School districts and states had ample warning about the end of stimulus funding. In a March 2009 presentation distributed by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, the U.S. Department of Education directed states to invest stimulus funds thoughtfully and sensibly to “minimize the ‘funding cliff.’”
As one of four guiding principles, federal education officials wrote, “ARRA represents a historic infusion of funds that is expected to be temporary. Depending on the program, these funds are available for only two to three years. These funds should be invested in ways that do not result in unsustainable continuing commitments after the funding expires.”
While they did not prohibit using stimulus funds to support teaching positions, federal education officials recommended that public schools use the stimulus money for purposes such as teacher training, instructional technology, and longitudinal data systems.
A year later, economic conditions had not improved as much as Obama administration officials had hoped, and top federal education officials changed their tune. Department of Education official Maura Policelli advised states “to use ARRA funds to support primarily the staffing needs” for low-income and special needs programs. She remarked that such a strategy “does require some courage because it does involve the possible risk of investing in staff that you may not be able to retain in the 2011-12 school year.”
School districts across the state rapidly poured federal stimulus money into teaching positions. The shift was dramatic. Years before passage of the stimulus, federal funds supported between 6 percent and 7 percent of the North Carolina teaching work force. The following year, the year the stimulus funds arrived, the percentage increased to nearly 10 percent.
This year, the federal government funded 12 percent of North Carolina’s teachers. Over the course of two years, North Carolina’s public schools shifted funding for 6 percent of its teaching positions from state and local sources to temporary federal sources.
New Hanover County is among many public school districts at the precipice. District leaders in New Hanover proposed cutting 132 stimulus-funded faculty and staff positions. Of those, about half are special education teachers, special education assistants, or related jobs. Half are jobs at low-income schools. A similar scenario is playing out in school districts across North Carolina.
So why do North Carolina’s school leaders blame Republicans, not the Obama administration?
Aside from their stalwart allegiance to the Democratic Party, the answer is simple. They gambled. Education leaders believed that state and federal lawmakers never would allow temporary sales tax and stimulus funds — for the children — to expire. So, for two years, school districts conducted business as usual, rather than preparing for the inevitable loss of revenue.
The Obama administration calls it courage; I call it recklessness.