DeLauro Announces $44 billion in Recovery Funding Available for States & Schools

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn. -3) announced that $44 billion is available for states and schools through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make critical investments in education and to save teaching jobs at risk of state and local budget cuts.

"By directing this funding to education, we are making critical investments in our children, our teachers, and our schools to ensure that our children can compete with any worker in the world. States and municipalities face budget gaps and this funding will ensure that we are not making harmful cuts to education," said DeLauro.

In addition to the $11.4 billion available immediately under Title I and IDEA, including half of the $103.6 million for Connecticut or $51.8, today's announcement includes applications and guidelines for $32.6 billion under the State Stabilization Fund, representing two-thirds of the total dollars in the Fund. This includes $26.6 billion to save jobs and improve K-12 and higher education and a separate $6 billion in a Government Services Fund to pay for education, public safety or other government services.

Funds in the first round will be released within two weeks of an application's approval. A second round of stabilization funds will be released later in the year. A third round of funding, the Race to the Top competitive grant program will reward states that have made the most progress on reforms.

The guidelines released today promote comprehensive education reform by receiving commitments from states that they 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. Specifically, the law requires states to show:

Improvements in teacher effectiveness and ensuring that all schools have highly qualified teachers; Progress toward college and career-ready standards and rigorous assessments that will improve both teaching and learning; · Improvements in achievement in low-performing schools, by providing intensive support and effective interventions in those schools.

· That they can gather information to improve student learning, teacher performance, and college and career-readiness through enhanced data systems that track progress.