Senate bill would provide $23B to retain teachers
ARRA funds help community colleges keep instructors, but more is needed
By Matthew Dembicki, Published April 14, 2010

The chair of the Senate subcommittee that oversees appropriations for education and job training programs today introduced a bill that would create a $23 billion fund to retain teachers and hire new ones.

The Keep Our Education Working Act would be modeled on the state fiscal stabilization fund (SFSF)—created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)—which provides funding to retain teachers, according to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s panel on labor, health and human services and education and related agencies, who introduced the bill prior to a hearing today on education funding.

The bill would offer about half of the federal funding provided for education in ARRA and equal to the amount proposed in the Jobs for Main Street Act passed by the House in December. The funds could be used for compensation and benefits and other expenses necessary to retain employees and to hire new employees in early childhood, elementary, secondary and postsecondary education. The money could also be used for on-the-job training activities for education-related activities.

SFSF is supporting more than 300,000 education jobs, such as teachers, principals, librarians and counselors, according to an outline of the proposed bill. But even with the funding, many districts and higher education institutions have laid off workers and the outlook is worse for 2010-11. The bill would help states avoid a “funding cliff” that would result in more layoffs, the outline said.

The cost of the bill is not offset in the federal budget, and some critics contend it’s unpalatable to add to the federal debt.

“How can you argue it’s OK to borrow for kids to go to college, but it’s not OK to borrow to make sure there’s a college for them to go to?” Harkin said at the hearing.

Ensuring that states use some of the funds for higher education is a concern for community college leaders.

About 70 percent of the total budgets of community colleges are devoted to labor costs, said Marc Herzog, chancellor of the Connecticut Community Colleges system, who testified at the appropriations hearing on behalf of the American Association of Community Colleges. Without the proposed funding, it’s uncertain how two-year colleges will manage, he said.

“Action of this nature is needed in order to avert major cuts on many of our campuses, which in turn will lead to further denial of access to our programs,” Herzog said.

College staff members are also losing their jobs, with many student support services being cut, such as libraries and laboratories, he said.

The bill has support from the Obama administration. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said during his testimony that the department wants to work with lawmakers on the details of the bill.

“I strongly support emergency action by Congress,” Duncan said. “This would be the right investment.”

ARRA benefits colleges

Herzog said ARRA funds have helped to hold off deeper cuts at many community colleges:

• Community colleges in Iowa received $23.1 million through SFSF to temper tuition increases and retain 257 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees.
• Colorado used ARRA funds to revert a nearly 50 percent cut in state appropriations to community colleges.
• The Alabama Community College System received about $35 million in ARRA funds to help keep tuition and fee increases to a minimum and to save 341 jobs.
• Washington used $8.5 million in ARRA funding to restore a 9 percent cut to community colleges, allowing them to serve 1,500 FTE students.

Almost two-thirds of community colleges participating in a recent survey by the League for Innovation in the Community College and the Campus Computing Project received ARRA funds over the past year, averaging $1.95 million per campus. College presidents reported that they spent most of the federal funds on saving jobs, particularly to retain instructional positions. 

But community college leaders are concerned about what will happen when ARRA funding expires. States are not likely to bounce back in the short term with more funding for higher education, which means community colleges and other schools would face more draconian cuts. The Harkin bill would help keep some potential cuts in check, Herzog said.

“Investments in education jobs provide both short-term and long-term benefits by preserving faculty jobs, expanding education and training opportunities at postsecondary level, and helping Americans attain the postsecondary degrees and credentials that will drive our future economy,” he said in his written testimony.