Complete Coverage

States, Districts Mull How to Use $10 Billion in Jobs Aid

President Barack Obama signs legislation that his administration pushed as crucial to preserving education jobs across the country.

—J. Scott Applewhite/AP

As Some Reverse Layoffs, Others Plan to Bank Cash with 'Funding Cliff' Looming

By Dakarai I. Aarons and Alyson Klein

As governors gear up to apply for federal money from the $10 million Education Jobs Fund , states and school districts are wrestling with how they plan to spend the aid the Obama administration said was desperately needed to save what the administration said would be some 160,000 educators’ jobs that otherwise would be lost.

Some districts will use the money to roll back furloughs and restore jobs slated to be cut for the 2010-11 school year. Others already had factored the money in while making budget decisions that allowed them to forgo layoffs.

And in other places, districts are planning to spend the lion’s share of the money in the 2011-12 school year, because they are concerned about the forthcoming “funding cliff” after funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal economic-stimulus program, dry up at the...