While the Obama Jobs Bill remains up in the air, school districts around the country wait with baited breath. The package's $60 billion ($30 billion for repairs and $30 billion to prevent layoffs) in aid to public schools needs to come sooner than later for many states whose Republican statehouses have recently made drastic education cuts as part of the Tea Party’s radical agenda. In Pennsylvania, where Governor Tom Corbett has sprinkled his corrupt tenure with major cuts to education, the Obama Jobs act would provide $944 million to modernize and repair schools and community colleges as well as create an estimated 12,300 jobs in Pennsylvania alone. According to TribLive.com,
“Pittsburgh Public Schools could be eligible for nearly $45 million, and Philadelphia schools nearly $400 million. The balance of the funding would be spread among the rest of Pennsylvania's 500 school districts, at the state's discretion.”
While barnstorming for support in Denver, Obama spoke about the importance of the Jobs Bill to school districts that need help. According to The Washington Post, Obama told supporters gathered in the parking lot of Denver’s Abraham Lincoln High School:
“Places like South Korea are adding teachers in droves to prepare their kids for the global economy. We’re laying ours off left and right. All across the country, budget cuts are forcing superintendents to make choices they don’t want to make. . . . It’s unfair to our kids; it undermines their future; it has to stop”
According to the same article, D.C. public schools will receive $85 million in funds to modernize, which would employ 1,100 workers. Maryland would receive $316 million which would produce 4,100 jobs. Virginia would receive $425 million in fund which would create 5,500 jobs.
Massachusetts could receive $378.6 million if the Obama Jobs Bill passes but this may actually come up shy of what's needed to rebuild the crumbling Boston public school system. A new report by the Council of Great City Schools indicates that a coalition of 66 of the country’s largest urban systems found that Boston schools alone needed $640 million for renovation, repair, and modernization, and $500 million for deferred maintenance.
“This report is further proof that Boston’s schools critically need the funds proposed by the President in the American Jobs Act,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. “The Act will provide billions for school modernization, which will help give our children the world-class education they deserve.”
In Texas, the Obama Jobs Act would provide nearly $2 billion in funding to school districts. According to an article in the Fort Worth Star- Telegram:
“About 40 percent of the money is earmarked for the 100 largest school districts in the country, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington and 16 other districts in Texas. That money -- based on the number of students living in poverty in those districts -- would be dispatched within 60 days of the bill's enactment, according to White House statements.
Among the school districts that would benefit from the bill, Arlington would receive $39.1 million, Fort Worth $84.9 million and Dallas $191.6 million.
"That would be great news," said Bob Carlisle, Arlington's executive director for plant services. "And I have no idea what we'd do with it yet. That would be a discussion we'd have to get into with all parties involved."
The state hits keep coming. Nebraska would receive $106.7 million and Iowa schools would receive $132.6 million in funding to modernize aging schools. This money could be well used in Iowa which currently has a 1 cent sales tax dedicated to funding school infrastructure buildings. Jeff Berger, deputy director of the Iowa Education Department, said that provides $350 million to $400 million a year. Some schools even have money sitting in the bank as a result.
"Our urban centers — our top six or eight or 10 — probably are in way more need of infrastructure support than our rural schools," he said. "I hate to say it that way, but it's our smaller, rural schools that have the excess fund balances in the sales tax money."
Florida would also greatly benefit from the Obama Jobs Bill. The state would receive nearly $3 billion which could support 16,600 jobs, according to NPR.
The Obama Jobs Bill may not be the end-all-fix-all to our country's economic woes, but it is likely to help rebuild schools sorely in need of the funding that many GOP legislators have pigeonholed as 'excess stimulus' not worthy of consideration.