El Paso, Apr 19, 2011 - U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes announced Monday that nearly $30 million will be awarded to El Paso area school districts. However, district officials are hesitant to believe it will benefit them.

Local school districts have already been making cuts and bracing for reductions in formula funding from the state. Reyes, D-Texas, announced that Texas will receive $830 million from the Education Job Fund, with about $28.8 million going to El Paso districts.
Reyes has indicated the area school districts that will receive a certain amount of the federal funding, with Ysleta Independent School District set to receive about $7 million.

Jimmy Loredo, the associate superintendent of finance for the Ysleta district, said he thinks the money is probably going to stay with the state to help offset its deficit. Ysleta expects to lose between $4.7 million and $36 million in state funding, depending on the proposed versions of House and Senate formula funding cuts. He said he does not think the money will be given to the YISD directly to help the district offset state cuts, but will be absorbed at the state level.

"In essence, we're not going to see a dime," Loredo said.

He said that a couple of years ago, a similar scenario played out when the federal government sent money for school districts and the state used it to reduce its deficit. He said the federal money will probably not affect their cuts, but may slightly lower the percentage of reductions from the state.

"I don't think it's going to have any impact on us," he said.

Xavier De La Torre, the Socorro Independent School District superintendent, said he would like to believe, due to the nature of cuts coming from the state, that the federal money won't be absorbed at the state level.

"It's something we can certainly use to balance our budget," De La Torre said.

The Socorro district expects to lose between $21 million and $30 million from the state.

He said there is some concern that the state could use the money the same way they did when the federal government sent stimulus funding during the last legislative session. The state took that money out of the state funding so that school districts received what they would normally receive.

"So basically, we got what was owed to us by the state," he said.

De La Torre said the federal government may have worked something out this time, but it is still too early to know exactly how the state will treat the money.

Lorenzo Garcia, superintendent of the El Paso Independent School District, said there are several different perspectives to take on the added federal money. The past experiences with the way the state has handled federal funds has left local school districts guarded.
"The concern is that the state will play the shell game on this, but we'll just have to wait and see," Garcia said.

He said the money will be used one time to temporarily save jobs. The district anticipates
state cuts between $14 million and $52 million.

"It can be used for salaries," Garcia said. "We still have the problem that the state is not adequately funding education."

He said that at this point it is too early to know whether the district could receive about $10 million on top of state funding, or as part of state funding. He said they will just have to wait to know how the state will handle the money, but thinks Reyes has done everything possible to see that this money will go to the school districts, and it is very appreciated.

"While school districts are making difficult decisions with painful budget cuts, these funds come at a crucial time for our teachers, counselors, librarians, and support personnel," Reyes said in a news release. "While the Democratic plan would have brought El Paso school districts over $48 million, every dollar helps to support our schools and children during these tough economic times."

By the numbers
•  El Paso school district: $10 million.
•  Ysleta school district: $7.3 million.
•  Socorro school district: $7.05 million.
•  Clint school district: $1.9 million.
•  Canutillo school district: $1.01 million.
•  San Elizario school district: $721,000.
•  Fabens school district: $444,000.
•  Tornillo school district: $234, 000.
•  Anthony school district: $156,000.
•  Total: $28,215,000
Source: TEA