Budget crisis? EduJobs to the rescue yet again

I didn’t think the bizarre story of EduJobs could get any more strange.

I was wrong.

EduJobs is the nickname for a well-meaning 2010 federal program created to help the nation’s school districts avoid recession-driven layoffs of teachers. The $10 billion congressional appropriation was pushed by President Barack Obama in response to stories about layoffs of young teachers just as the school year was approaching.

The money was to be distributed based on a state’s share of the population. Washington’s share was $208 million.

There was one major disconnect, however, between the rationale and the reality. Despite U.S. Sen. Patty Murray’s claim that 3,000 state teachers faced layoffs, only a relative handful were at risk. Only 445 public school teachers had received a layoff warning, and by the time the school year began, most had been recalled to the job.

But the emergency appropriation was written so broadly that school districts could spend it for just about any education-related costs. They never got the chance. In the midst of its own budget shortfall last December, the Legislature siphoned off the $208 million to help close a budget hole. Washington’s budget whizzes found the loophole in the law and stayed out of trouble by first distributing the money to nearly 300 districts, then reducing the state’s regular apportionment by an identical amount.

That stayed technically within the EduJobs law, even while it ran counter to historic practice.

“A long-standing principle of federal aid to elementary and secondary education is that federal funding adds to, and does not substitute for, state and local education funding,” stated an August 2010 overview of the new law by the Congressional Research Service. Federal requirements are intended “to ensure that all federal funds represent a net increase in the level of financial resources available to serve eligible students.”

Murray’s spokesman said this when asked about the Legislature’s actions: “Sen. Murray does not believe that supplanting the funding is in the spirit of (the) legislation.”

Few in the education community complained because, well, the budget cuts could have been worse.

And now they are. Exactly one year later, the state finds itself in yet another financial bind. Even though this budget hole is $2 billion, analysts have been eyeballing amounts as small as a few thousand dollars. So an account with $3.1 million inside might as well have had flashing lights and a siren on top.

The extra money got to the state after South Carolina didn’t apply for last year’s share. Washington was to distribute it to local school districts for the same reasons as last year – to soften the blow of local budget shortfalls. But apparently wanting to be consistent, Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed and both houses of the Legislature voted to keep this EduJobs grant as well. Again, the money was sent to the districts while an identical amount was deducted from the state apportionment. Not one additional dollar went to schools.

I wasn’t able to get someone at the federal Department of Education to explain why the department sent more money to a state that hadn’t followed, as Murray’s office put it, “the spirit of the legislation.”

But what’s $3 million in the scheme of things? Well, it is at least illustrative of the difference between what is said about programs like this and what actually happens.

It also is worth restating the source of the money. EduJobs’ $10 billion and a companion $16 billion distribution to help states cover shortfalls in Medicaid was paid for partly with an end to a tax credit for companies with foreign operations. But about $12 billion came by taking away a recent increase in food stamps. Starting in 2014, the average family on food stamps will see a $50-a-month cut in aid.

I’m nearly certain each one will feel that the sacrifice is worth it to help Washington state lawmakers out of a budget jam – not once, but twice.

Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657 peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com blog:thenewstribune.com/politics Twitter: @CallaghanPeter