There’s Money for Schools, but Will California Get Some?

Today’s roundup of stimulus coverage:

California educators are uneasy about an effort to increase the state’s piece of the stimulus pie by sacrificing some local decision-making on schools, reports The Press-Enterprise of Riverside. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law Sunday that will allow student performance on standardized tests to be used in evaluating teachers and principals. This was previously banned in California, which prohibited the state from applying for money from the Race to the Top fund, and the governor is pushing the Legislature for other changes that would make the state eligible.

The early numbers are in, and it looks like public school teachers are the big winners when it comes to stimulus jobs, according to the Associated Press. But spending at schools may not be as straightforward as it seems, as we reported last week, since some districts are using stimulus money as an excuse to decrease their local funding.

Stay tuned for updates on stimulus spending. This Thursday, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board will release the first of two installments of data about how each state is spending its federal stimulus money. Thursday’s installment will cover the impact of direct spending by federal agencies, like fixing military bases and national parks. Later this month, a much larger installment will include data on jobs such as construction workers hired to fix local highways.

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