This section may be a real issue for the Tea-Evagelicals otherwise known as Republicans since they have declared a war on teachers and the Department of Education. The sections below indicate the purpose of Subtitle B and the fact it includes not only the Department of Education but also the Department of the Interior for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It as though the President believes children of Native Indian decent should matter. Go figure, huh?
SEC. 202. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this subtitle is to provide funds to States to prevent teacher layoffs and support the creation of additional jobs in public early childhood, elementary, and secondary education in the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years.
SEC. 203. GRANTS FOR THE OUTLYING AREAS AND THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR; AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS.
Under Section 203:
(b) AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS. Funds made available under section 212 shall remain available to the Secretary until September 30, 2012.
The reason I bring that up is because there are many 'sunset' rules in this bill. Of course September 30, 2012 is the end of the fiscal year that began on October 1, 2011. There are some provisions I already reviewed with a termination date of December 31, 2012. While dates may seem irrelevant to most people, except perhaps April 15th of every year, this bill will not be in effect forever and it is why President Obama was saying "Pass this bill now!"
Makes sense to me.
Below are the State allocations in Section 204. The younger student receives the lion share of the funding. Nice. Then the remainder is available for people over 17 years of age returning to work that may need help training or learning for work.
SEC. 204. STATE ALLOCATION
(a) ALLOCATION. After reserving funds under section 203(a), the Secretary shall allocate to the States—
(1) 60 percent on the basis of their relative population of individuals aged 5 through 17; and
(2) 40 percent on the basis of their relative total population.
Actually the more I thought about that the more the allocation is based on a ratio of the number of children which is weighted by 60% for children and what that is in relation to 40% of the entire population. That ratio will determine the allocation to the State. That is interesting.
Nope, it isn't a ratio. It is a simple equation. No funny math.
State Allocation = 0.6 X number of children ages 5-17 + 0.4 X number of populous of state
0.6 + 0.4 = 1 when dealing with percentages it is easier to divide the percentage number by 100 in order to multiply with the whole number.
60 percent / (divided by) 100 = 0.6 Okay? Oh, why divide by 100? Because 60 percent and 40 percent is 100 percent. That's why.
This is interesting and I wonder if there will be lawsuits from the states about this because it overrides a Governor in favor of the children of the State. I know why the President did this, because, he wants ALL children of the USA to benefit from the American Jobs Act. This is unfortunate, because, the lack of interest by Republican Governors that turned away Recovery Act Funds did so for political purposes and it has created a void of trust with the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.
Hm.
(c) ALTERNATE DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.
(1) If, within 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, a Governor has not submitted an approvable application to the Secretary, the Secretary shall, consistent with paragraph (2), provide for funds allocated to that State to be distributed to another entity or other entities in the State for the support of early childhood, elementary, and secondary education, under such terms and conditions as the Secretary may establish.
(2) MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT.
(A) GOVERNOR ASSURANCE. The Secretary shall not allocate funds under paragraph (1) unless the Governor of the State provides an assurance to the Secretary that the State will for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 meet the requirements of section 209.
(B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), the Secretary may allocate up to 50 percent of the funds that are available to the State under paragraph (1) to another entity or entities in the State, provided that the State educational agency submits data to the Secretary demonstrating that the State will for fiscal year 2012 meet the requirements of section 209(a) or the Secretary otherwise determines that the State will meet those requirements, or such comparable requirements as the Secretary may establish, for that year.
(3) REQUIREMENTS. An entity that receives funds under paragraph (1) shall use those funds in accordance with the requirements of this subtitle.
(d) REALLOCATION. If a State does not receive funding under this subtitle or only receives a portion of its allocation under subsection (c), the Secretary shall reallocate the State’s entire allocation or the remaining portion of its allocation, as the case may be, to the remaining States in accordance with subsection (a).
Actually, I believe section (c)(1) is addressing PRIVATE entities within the State and not departments within the State. It may be that the Secretary of Education or Interior will have the right to distribute the funds to 'service providers' within the State to assist children. This may not be a States' Rights issue at all. The way a State would not qualify is if they are under standard and those funds would be redistributed to other states.
Section 209 above is written later in this section.
SEC. 206. STATE RESERVATION AND RESPONSIBILITIES.
(a) RESERVATION. Each State receiving a grant under section 204(b) may reserve—
(1) not more than 10 percent of the grant funds for awards to State-funded early learning programs; and
(2) not more than 2 percent of the grant funds for the administrative costs of carrying out its responsibilities under this subtitle.
I thought 206(a)(2) WAS MORE THAN INTERESTING AS IT KEEPS ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS WITHIN LIMITS TO SINCERELY BENEFIT THE CHILDREN. Nice.
The Teacher Stability portion of this bill goes on to spell out the State's responsibility in the distribution of funds to the educational system in the form of GRANTS. The State cannot make loans out of their portion of the bill. They have to apply these monies as Grants so the educational system has no liability to return the monies in any way. The grants have to be awarded within 100 days from the date the bill is signed into law. 100 days for RELIEF is appropriate, but, there will be problems if there are States where the Governors are not allowed to distribute these funds without legislative approval. That might a problem. The Executive Branch needs to have the Attorney General's Office examine that possibility. If there are such states where the Governor's authority is truncated by this bill there needs to be an amendment to attempt to override as an emergency provision and/or extend the time frame for those states which is a better option, otherwise, those monies will go to other states and I don't think that is a good approach.
(B) 40 percent on the basis of the local educational agencies’ relative shares of funds received under part A of title I of the for fiscal year 2011; and
I have some reservations about the provision above. I think. Let me look at this.
The is where No Child Left Behind resides and the President just signed an executive order for States that are looking for waivers. The Secretaries of Education and Interior would be obligated to apply these monies appropriately according to those waivers. States interested and/or eligible for these monies should the bill pass need to examine whether they are seeking a waiver that will assist in qualifying for these funds as well.
The (click here)
Below is the law with changes made by this administration.
ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION
ESEA Reauthorization: A Blueprint for Reform (click here)
The States receiving these monies cannot abuse their use. They cannot set up rainy day funds or use them to pay general bills by the state, they are to benefit the children and benefit learning.
The local authorities are sincerely the meat and potatoes of the funds. They have limits on the use of them as well.
SEC. 207. LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES.
Each local educational agency that receives a subgrant under this subtitle—
(1) shall use the subgrant funds only for compensation and benefits and other expenses, such as support services, necessary to retain existing employees, recall or rehire former employees, or hire new employees to provide early childhood, elementary, or secondary educational and related services;
(2) shall obligate those funds no later than September 30, 2013; and
(3) may not use those funds for general administrative expenses or for other support services or expenditures, as those terms are defined by the National Center for Education Statistics in the Common Core of Data, as of the date of enactment of this Act.
The 'obligation' date is September 30, 2013 because the monies have to make their way to the States and then to the local authorities and then they have to be distributed to be used appropriately, so, the benefit of these monies can impact children all the way through this school year and into next school year depending when the bill is passed and how quickly states can apply for the funds. That is wonderful. Local authorities will have a boost to their funding for nearly two years. Really nice.
There is an Early Learning provision to be used for personnel hiring and/or returning based on the same rules as those for Elementary and High School Students.
SEC. 209. MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT.
Yep, it covers educational fiscal years 2012 and 2013 and it includes this provision for higher education:
and for public institutions of higher education (not including support for capital projects or for research and development or tuition and fees paid by students)
There is a waiver capacity for the Secretaries:
(b) WAIVER. The Secretary may waive the requirements of this section if the Secretary determines that a waiver would be equitable due to—
(1) exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances, such as a natural disaster; or
(2) a precipitous decline in the financial resources of the State.
Below is the section on reporting which is followed by Definitions and that ends on the top of page 17. I have covered six pages this evening and I will pick up tomorrow with the next set of provisions on the bill which is "Subtitle C - First Responder Stabilization." So far, so good. I like it. It is a well thought out bill. I have stated my reservations where I thought appropriate, but, other than that I have no apprehension this is urgent and necessary. Well done.
SEC. 210. REPORTING.
Each State that receives a grant under this subtitle shall submit, on an annual basis, a report to the Secretary that contains—
(1) a description of how funds received under this part were expended or obligated; and
(2) an estimate of the number of jobs supported by the State using funds received under this subtitle.
SEC. 211. DEFINITIONS.
