BY JONATHAN CANNON

HERALD DEMOCRAT

When President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February, White House officials estimated that the $787 billion stimulus would save 3.5 million jobs, and according to early indications, 250,000 of those jobs are in education.

"This is one more indication of how the Recovery Act is helping to soften the blow of tough economic times, by keeping educators on the job and teachers in the classroom," Vice President Joe Biden said in a press release.

According to a report from the President's office and the U.S. Dept. of Education, the stimulus money came just in time to make up for state budget shortfalls across the country -- $11 billion for the 2008-2009 school year and $17.1 billion for the 2009-2010 year -- which could have caused education cutbacks and layoffs. In Texas, the report said the ARRA money restored $529 million, 3 percent of the kindergarten through 12th grade education budget.

The report points to examples such as New York City, where 4,000 teaching jobs were saved, and to Sand Springs, Okla., where 46 jobs -- 10 percent of the teaching staff -- were saved.

Locally, the numbers were less profound. In Denison, Dr. Henry Scott, superintendent of schools, said the money saved three paraprofessional jobs and created about four jobs in special education. S&S Superintendent Robert Steeber said the district created two positions and Bells Superintendent Joe Moore said Bells Independent School District funded one position.

Most districts said the positions that were created were done with the understanding that the positions were short term.

"We were hesitant to use that money for salaries because it runs out in two years, and then you're going to be left holding the bag," Scott said.

Moore said Bells will continue its position after the money runs out because of the results they've seen in student performance. He said the aid position, which was created with stimulus money, gives one of BISD's teachers the flexibility to teach a new reading program at the junior high.

Most district officials said they were already prepared for tight budgets, and therefore weren't considering layoffs before the stimulus money was distributed.

"We don't feel like, if the money had not come, that we would have had to have any more reductions, because we had just gone through that as a school district prior to receiving funds," said Dr. Al Hambrick, SISD superintendent. "We had several areas that we certainly looked at and some of it was a reduction in positions, most through attrition, but we actually, throughout last year, cut back on a lot of areas."

Collinsville Superintendent Tim Wright said they too were comfortable with their financial position.

While local school districts didn't use most of the money to fund positions, that doesn't mean it went to waste. Many said they used the money to fund staff development, technology purchases and other programs that wouldn't require sustained funding.

"We were very careful that the ways we're using the money are ways that will allow us to be able to continue that funding after the money is gone in two years," Hambrick said.

In Collinsville, Wright said the district used some of the money to fund current educational staff members' salaries, which allowed them to move that money into their construction fund.

Scott said that even though these purchases didn't create jobs directly for Denison ISD, they still had an impact.

"If you buy $800,000 worth of technology, you're going to create jobs for people that manufacture, distribute, and sell that type of thing," he said.