March, 2010
Volume 18, Issue 7
EYES ON THE BOARD
MISD—MILLIONS IN
UNSPENT FEDERAL
STIMULUS DOLLARS
When Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) about $150 billion in federal stimulus money was targeted for public education with $7.1 billion for Texas public schools.
Title I Stimulus money could be used for programs designed at assisting disadvantaged students. This included specific dollars targeted for early childhood programs, dropout prevention, credit recovery and general school improvement programs. Also IDEA stimulus funds were allotted to increase the federal share of special education costs and to prevent these mandatory costs from forcing districts to cut other areas of education.
In addition to the additional millions MISD gets on a regular basis, the district was scheduled for $41,324,213 in stimulus funds for the classroom through Title I, Title 2, and IDEA.
“Given this influx of federal dollars for the classroom over a two year period, we have been somewhat shocked over the number of complaints we get from teachers regarding program and material cuts on the MISD campuses,” said McAllen AFT President Ruth Skow. “After checking the TEA website, we were even more shocked to see that as of mid-February, McAllen ISD had only claimed $12,953,431 million dollars of the stimulus money aimed at the classroom leaving $28,370,782 million unclaimed.
We are asking McAllen ISD administration to explain why we are seeing staffing and program cuts and shortage of materials with this influx of new federal money. It defies logic that at a time that MISD has qualified over $41,324,213 million in new federal funds that we are seeing campus level cuts.
UNUSED STIMULUS $’S IN MISD
Title 1, Part A—ARRA
$7,436,281 (award amount)
$1,019,357 (drawn from TEA)
$6,416,924 (unused balance)
Title 1, Part A
$12,054,405 (award amount)
$ 3,679,584 (drawn from TEA)
$8,374,821 (unused balance)
Title 1, SIP—ARRA
$152,379 (award amount)
$0 (drawn from TEA)
$152,379 (unused balance)
Title 1, SIP
$230,186 (award amount)
$ 25,726 (drawn from TEA)
$214,460 (unused balance)
Title II, Part D, Formula—ARRA
$232,266 (award amount)
$0 (drawn from TEA)
$232,266 (unused balance)
Title II, Part D, Formula
$92,150 (award amount)
$21,508 (drawn from TEA)
$70,642 (unused balance)
Title XIV, Stabilization—ARRA
$11,922,342 (award amount)
$ 5,788,758 (drawn from TEA)
$ 6,133,584 (unused balance)
IDEA B Formula—ARRA
$ 5,096,819 (award amount)
$ 849,367 (drawn from TEA)
$ 4,247,452 (unused balance)
IDEA-B Formula
$ 3,904,573 (award amount)
$ 1,545,584 (drawn from TEA)
$ 2,358,989 (unused balance)
IDEA-B Preschool—ARRA
$ 131,731 (award amount)
$0 (drawn from TEA)
$ 131,731 (unused balance)
IDEA-B Preschool
$71,081 (award amount)
$29,547 (drawn from TEA)
$41,534 (unused balance)
Total unused Federal Stimulus money
$28,370,782.
It is possible that the district has spent the money but has not submitted a report to recoup funds that have been expended.
Sources:
