By KRISTI E. SWARTZ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, April 24, 2009
Two education groups want Gov. Sonny Perdue to spend an additional $178 million in stimulus money now, but he plans to hold it for upcoming school budgets.
The Georgia School Funding Association and the Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation said Friday the state appears not to be tapping into all of the available money from the federal State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. The money is designed to help restore state-cut funding, especially to public schools and colleges.
Joe Martin, executive director of the school funding association, said in a letter to the state Board of Education that there is “no compelling reason to delay the receipt and use of these funds” to ease the effect of cuts made by the Legislature for the rest of fiscal 2009.
Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said it is more prudent to use the money during fiscal 2010 and 2011 instead of in 2009 because the school year is almost over. Also, using the money later will help in case the economic turnaround is slower than expected, he said. The governor plans to request the money early in the fiscal year, which begins July 1, but the funds will be distributed regularly throughout the year, Brantley said.
“No money is being left on the table,” Brantley said. “It’s just a matter of … how do you apply it in terms of offsetting cuts and not leaving a big hole in the future that would be harder to fill.”
Georgia received its first batch of Fiscal Stabilization Fund money last month. The second is expected in the fall. To get the second part, states must explain how they will improve education in several areas, such as teacher quality and academic standards and exams.
On Tuesday the state Board of Education will vote on how to apply stimulus money that will help schools in several areas, such as homeless students, special education (IDEA) and low-income students (Title I).
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