Press Releases

Payne Announces New Jersey Schools to Receive $566 Million
Recovery Act funds will help New Jersey’s Students, Teachers, and Families

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Donald M. Payne, senior member of the House Education and Labor Committee, announced today that $566,267,349 in emergency education funding has been released for schools in New Jersey to help save education-related jobs and maintain programs for low-income students and students with disabilities. Specifically, New Jersey schools will receive $182,971,299 in Title I funds and $383,296,050 immediately.

Nationwide, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $13 billion in Title I funds, which help low-income students, and $13.5 billion in IDEA funds, which help students with disabilities. This is the first of two installments of direct funding for Title I and IDEA programs that school districts will receive under President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; the second installment of funds will be released to districts in the fall of this year.

"The disbursement of Title I and IDEA funds is welcome news from the Obama administration," Payne said. "In these hard economic times, state and local entities are facing hard choices on what to cut from their budgets. Unfortunately, education spending is not immune from these recissions. This funding will provide some buffer to states and local entities as they weather this economic storm."

In addition to the Title I and IDEA investments, the economic recovery plan also created a state stabilization fund to help stabilize state and local budgets and prevent harmful cuts to education. Along with announcing the release of funding for local districts, the Obama administration also issued guidelines today to clarify how these funds must be used to help clear up recent confusion over whether the state can decide how local districts and colleges use those funds.

The guidelines confirm that while states allocate the funds, it should be up to local school districts and colleges and universities to decide how to use this emergency aid. The guidelines also reaffirmed that state stabilization funds should be used for three purposes: to minimize harmful cuts to K-12 and higher education, to stave off teacher layoffs, and to modernize school facilities – which could create new jobs.

IDEA is the major federal program that provides funding for special education and related services to students with disabilities. The Title I program provides funds to low-income school districts that are in even greater need during this economic downturn. The funds appropriated through the Recovery Plan are distributed through the previously defined IDEA and Title I formulas.

For more information on the education spending in the recovery package, click here.

To view the guidance issued by the Department of Education, click here.