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States Slow to Tap 'Edujobs' Funding

As states and school districts approach a multi-billion-dollar funding cliff later this year when most of the money runs out under the federal economic-stimulus program, they are slowly tapping the separate $10 billion Education Jobs Fund to help them ride out a rocky recovery from a deep recession.

With the school year half over, 20 states and the District of Columbia have spent less than 5 percent of their allotments under that one-time measure designed to save educator jobs this year and next, according to an Education Week analysis of U.S. Department of Education data. Only four states—Kansas, South Dakota, California, and Georgia—have spent more than 80 percent of their shares. And Texas and South Carolina, which have their own unique budget dynamics that have affected their applications, may never see a dime.

Overall, states have spent $2.5 billion of the $10 billion pot of money Congress created in August to help shore up states’ K-12 budgets, just as much of the nearly $100 billion in education aid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dries up. All told, states report that translates into 62,487 jobs either created or...