Lincoln: $91M in Education Funding Will Benefit Arkansas

Press Release

U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) today said that the $91 million awarded to Arkansas by the U.S. Department of Education will make important investments in our teacher workforce and improvements to Arkansas schools.

"I supported passage of the Education Jobs Fund because our children are our greatest resource, and I do not believe that they should have to shoulder the burden of an economic recession," Lincoln said. "I know that an additional investment in our education budget will be a tremendous help to schools seeking to address their critical needs."

The Education Jobs Fund, recently passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, will support education jobs in the 2010-11 school year and be distributed to states by a formula based on population figures. States can distribute their funding to school districts based on their own primary funding formula or districts' relative share of federal Title I funds.

Arkansas will be able to use this $91 million in place of funding that had already been set aside for teacher salaries, and then use the resulting savings on capital improvements to school districts and other high priorities.

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