Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn. – 3) announced that with the approval of their application, Connecticut will receive $363 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make investments in education reform and help save teaching jobs at risk of state and local budget cuts. Connecticut will be eligible to apply for another $179 million this fall.

“This funding will help make the critical investments that will strengthen our educational system – for our children and our teachers. It will ensure that we are laying the groundwork to ensure that our children can compete with any worker in the world. And as states and municipalities face budget gaps, these dollars from the Recovery Act will ensure that we are not making harmful cuts to education,” said DeLauro.

To date, Connecticut has received $109 million in education stimulus funds—representing a combination of funding for Title I, IDEA, Vocational Rehabilitation Grants and Independent Living Grants. On April 1, Connecticut received more than $35 million in Title I funding and more than $71 million in IDEA funding. This represents 50 percent of the Title I and IDEA funding Connecticut is eligible for in total. On April 1, Connecticut also received $1.7 million in Vocational Rehab funds and $671,000 in Independent Living funds.

In order to receive today’s funds, Connecticut provided assurances that it will collect, publish, analyze and act on basic information regarding the quality of classroom teachers, annual student improvements, college readiness, the effectiveness of state standards and assessments, progress on removing charter caps and interventions in turning around underperforming schools.

Connecticut is also required by the Department of Education to report the number of jobs saved through Recovery Act funding, the amount of state and local tax increases averted and how funds are used.

See Connecticut and other state applications for initial funding under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund Program at http://www.ed.gov/programs/statestabilization/resources.html.