Maintaining Services During Difficult Economic Times

In order to help ensure that states and local school districts were able to maintain critical services and investments, at all levels of public education, in the face of the recent economic crisis, Congressman Tierney was a leading proponent of providing funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and creation of the Education Jobs Fund to help local schools maintain services, including for high poverty students and those with disabilities.

 

The ARRA included billions in funding for public education, including record increases in Title I and IDEA, as well as a State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, which helped states forestall massive teacher layoffs, kept class sizes from increasing exponentially and allowed school systems to retain critical services. The increases for elementary and secondary schools alone were equivalent to one full extra year of regular funding, spread over 3 state fiscal years. Funding for postsecondary education through the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund allowed states to, among other options, retain or hire faculty and staff at public higher education institutions, maintain or expand enrollment, repair, renovate and modernize campus facilities, and pay for other costs associated with the evolving needs of higher education in the current economy.

 

The Education Jobs Fund provided an additional $10 billion in education aid to the states to retain teacher positions, including almost 3,000 in Massachusetts.