Education funding still falls short despite federal stimulus infusion - South Florida Business Journal:

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That was the sentimenr of an eight-member panel of education, traininyg and government experts gathered by the South Florida Business Journal to examine howthe $787 billio federal stimulus package is impacting the region’s educationb and workforce training sectors. The panepl marked the third in theBusiness Journal’s ongoinh stimulus series, aimed at tracking and analyzing the flow of moneyg from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into South Florida’s Legislature was the only one nationally to request a federal waivedr that allowed it to take moneu from education and replace it with stimuluws dollars while other states used stimulus dollars to augment the The situation concerned panelist state Sen.
Eleanord Sobel. “We are not starting at the startiny line. The school district in Browardf County and those throughout the stater are starting behind thestartinyg line,” Sobel said. “They have had problems for years and they are all Veteran educatorRobert Parks, a member of the Browarrd County School Board, said, “Many of the large urban districta in the nation are afraid of one which is basically a bait and switcu with those dollars.” What’s even more worrisome to some expertsz is that the stimulus money will eventually run out. “I’k really concerned about in three what’s going to happen?
” said José president of ’s North Campus. “This is a He said the college’s operating budget was cut $22 millionj while the stimulus money wasonly $13 Parks said Broward County’s schookl system has cut $1.4 billionj from its construction budgegt in addition to furloughing 700 teacherd and 51 administrators. “We’ve closed all of our school officea forthe summer. We don’t have summer schoool anymore,” Parks said. would have been lookintg at cutting its budget byabout $30 millio n without $12 million in stimulus funds, said Dorothgy K.
Russell, the university’s associate VP for financialo affairs and budget The university cut 30 positionssand “had we not had the stimulus dollarw it could have been much more severe.” Georg Hanbury, executive VP and COO of , said the $1.3 billioh in stimulus funds given to the state relieved pressure on the Legislatures to further reduce support for Florida Residentt Access Grants (FRAG), a key source of monehy for students, but he pointes out that the grants used to be $3,00p0 a year for students and are now $2,529. The amount is importanf to students, who find enrollment caps at state universities and turn to NSU and otherdprivate institutions.
He also said that universities are working togetheer to apply for federal stimulus NSU has a collaborative proposal with and FAU fora $50 millioh research building with wet labs, business incubator spacs and offices for the U.S. Geological which is helping overseeEverglades “We have shovel-ready projects we have submittes to the Governor and in the next 60 days we couldx put 1,000 people to work,” Hanbury said. The competitioh for these typesof though, is fierce. FAU is getting about $12 million in direcyt infusion from the federalstimulus package, but the university also is seekingh money from the for labs and Russell said.
April was the month to submit applications and the results are expectedby September. The stronges flow of money, so far, appears to be for programxs that help the jobless asthe state’s unemploymeng rate has hit 10.2 percent.