Stimulus funds save some education jobs in Alabama

Though White House officials are boasting that the stimulus package has created or saved 325,000 education jobs nationwide, that only amounts to 841 in Alabama, according to a newly released report.

That's one quarter of 1 percent.

Mobile County is expected to get $67 million in federal stimulus money over two years, according to the state. School officials said 245 jobs that would have been eliminated as a result of state budget cuts have instead been saved. That includes 92 teachers.

Baldwin County schools Spokesman Terry Wilhite said no jobs have been saved or created yet because the district hasn't received any of its anticipated $23 million. Once that money is received, Wilhite said, the system plans to hire 30 teachers, four translators and seven part-time tutors.

Michael Sibley, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Education, said the state's tally on the federal report is lower because officials have not finished the calculations. He said the final number should "show significant increases."

Paul Hubbert, executive secretary of the Alabama Education Association, said he expects the number to be at least 4,000 jobs, about 2,500 of which are teaching positions. He said the stimulus money allowed schools — which are in the midst of two years of budget cuts known as proration — to keep all of their state-funded teacher units.

But still, some systems, including Mobile and Baldwin, lost some positions funded out of local money. Baldwin County lost 465 jobs and Mobile County about 600 over the last two years.

"I shudder to think what would've happened to schools," without the stimulus money, Hubbert said, adding that class sizes would have been larger.

State officials estimated in the spring that the $1 billion Alabama schools expected as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would save about 3,790 jobs. But local officials have been cautious about using the money on salaries because of something known as the "spending cliff."

When the money runs out in two years, school systems will either have to find a new salary source or resort to layoffs. If the employees receive tenure during those two years, meanwhile, they'll enjoy strong job protections.

Mobile County schools Superintendent Roy Nichols said it would be wise for the district to buy materials and enact programs to improve education. The system so far has invested millions of dollars on dropout prevention programs, such as hiring graduation coaches at six high schools and running a night school for students at B.C. Rain High.

Sibley said the state calculations include stimulus money set aside specifically for special education and Title One schools, which serve mostly poor students. Of Alabama's 841 jobs, 691 are in the field of special education, 148 are from Title One schools, and two work with homeless students.

By comparison, 19,553 jobs have been created or saved in Florida; 16,711 in Georgia; 5,176 in Louisiana; and 42 in Mississippi, according to the report by the U.S. Department of Education.

The state with the most jobs created or saved is California, with 80,363, and the one with the least is Wyoming, with three.

"What we really tried to do was stave off an education catastrophe here," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told reporters during a teleconference Monday. "It would have been an absolute national disaster had these education funds not been available to keep teachers in the classroom."

The stimulus package includes about $100 billion for schools nationwide.

Duncan said he doesn't have a "crystal ball" to predict whether the saved and created jobs will have to be eliminated when the stimulus money runs out after next year.