State's schools get $400 million federal windfall — with strings attached

OLYMPIA — Washington schools will get an unprecedented federal windfall over the next two years — up to $400 million for special-education and low-income students.

The temporary influx of money is certainly welcome. School officials have long complained that the federal government doesn't give them what they need.

But the federal cash has also put some school officials in an awkward spot. The state budget crisis has forced schools to cut training and class offerings and lay off hundreds of teachers. The Legislature slashed $600 million from Initiative 728 funding, approved by the voters in 2000, to hire teachers and reduce class sizes.

So due to limits on how the new federal stimulus money can be spent, the additional money means many districts may wind up maintaining or improving services for some students while cutting programs for others.

In Federal Way, for example, Superintendent Thomas Murphy is trying to figure out how to spend the special-education money while also planning to lay off 10 teachers.

"If that money came with no strings, that would be an option to say, 'OK, we don't have to lay these 10 teachers off,' " he said.

The Lake Washington School District has avoided laying off teachers but plans to cut back some math and science teacher-training programs while it expands teacher training for special-needs students.

"It certainly poses a dilemma for us," said Chip Kimball, Lake Washington superintendent. "If we had those same dollars unrestricted, we would have spent them differently, I imagine."

Kimball said the message being sent by government is that low-income and special-education programs "are more important than math and science. Well, our local community may say math and science are equally important programs."

In Seattle, however, the head of the School Board sees little downside to the federal money, a portion of which can be used to patch budget holes. "It's a pretty good fit for us right now," said Michael DeBell, the board president.

Christie Perkins, the public-policy chair for the Washington State Special Education Coalition, said school administrators have a right to complain about the way Congress handed out the stimulus money.

But she's worried about special education being put "in this difficult position of being blamed by everybody. It's always been an issue from the beginning of time. Whenever you have a large chunk of money that's going to one particular population, it's going to be seen by others as an unfair scenario."

Federal stimulus

The extra money for schools is part of a federal stimulus package aimed at helping states get out of the recession.

In this state, lawmakers faced a $9 billion shortfall in the fiscal 2009-2011 budget earlier this year because of a staggering drop in tax collections.

Congress helped by giving the state around $3 billion that could be spent on anything. It helped limit the damage to the state budget and kept a bad situation for public schools from getting much worse.

But lawmakers still had to hack billions out of the state budget. Cuts included most of the state funding for Initiative 728, which could be used by school districts for a variety of purposes, including reducing class sizes.

While lawmakers were taking that money away, they were also adding in federal money with strings attached. Specifically, the money for special education and Title I funds, which are aimed at helping low-income students.

In other words, the Legislature slashed state funding for public schools that could be used broadly, and partially replaced it with one-time stimulus dollars from the federal government with a more narrow purpose.

The federal government did provide some flexibility.

School districts are getting a total of about $220 million in federal special-education money. They can use up to half of that amount to backfill cuts elsewhere in their budgets. Essentially, the new money allows districts to use some of the local money they now spend on special education for other purposes.

Even so, Paul Rosier, executive director of the Washington Association of School Administrators, says "There is going to be nothing easy about using this money ... It's just that there are a lot of rules. The problem is, the more rules there are, the easier it is to step on the line somewhere and be out of compliance."

State Superintendent Randy Dorn said school officials "need to think more creatively about these dollars instead of, 'We can only spend it this way.' "

The federal government, he said, is essentially telling districts, "We're giving you resources to change what you do so that it works better for kids."

In two years, it's gone

The biggest issue with the federal money, aside from the restrictions on use, is that it's temporary.

If districts use it to hire new teachers, for example, what will they do in two years when the funding is due to dry up?

"All of that has to be weighed," Rosier said. "There are lots of complications for districts. How do you use the money in an effective way that doesn't set you up for real problems down the road?"

Some school districts are using their Title I money for preschool and kindergarten programs that benefit low-income students.

When it comes to special-education dollars, many districts are considering using the money for one-time purposes such as buying new books and training all their teachers to work with special-education students.

Seattle Public Schools also is looking at using some of the money to create a new system that, instead of teaching special-education students separately, brings them into the general classroom population, depending on their needs.

And Seattle is using half of its federal special-education money to help retain teachers who otherwise would be laid off. The district had planned to lay off 160 teachers but was able to save 57 jobs using the federal money combined with other funds.

DeBell, the board president, said he's not too worried about the federal money disappearing because Seattle's enrollment appears to be increasing, and that will bring in more state money.

"The federal money is working like a bridge for us to allow us to carry employees we're pretty sure we're going to need because of enrollment trends," he said.

Andrew Garber: 360-236-8266 or agarber@seattletimes.com