Mitchell Announces up to $1.4 Billion in Education Stimulus Funds for Arizona

Press Release

Mitchell Announces up to $1.4 Billion in Education Stimulus Funds for Arizona

Recovery funding to directly aid Arizona's students, teachers, and families

U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell announced today that Arizona will receive $400 million in U.S. Department of Education stimulus funding, and is eligible to apply for $1 billion more. The funding will be released in two installments. The first half will be released today with the second half expected to be released in the fall.

Funding for Title I Grants, which are directed towards helping low-income students, and IDEA Grants, which provide programs for students with disabilities, are included in the $400 million the Department of Education is releasing. A full list of funding Arizona is receiving can be found here while Title I allocations to individual school districts is available here and IDEA allocations to individual school districts is available here.

Arizona is also eligible to apply for more than $1 billion from the State Stabilization Fund which was created to help stabilize state and local budgets and restore harmful cuts to education.

"As a former teacher, I understand that investments in education are critical to our future," Mitchell said. "A strong education for our students translates into a prepared and competitive workforce. In addition, this funding will help save education-related jobs across Arizona."

The Department of Education has also issued guidelines today to clarify how funds must be used. According to the guidelines, while state governments allocate the funds, to ensure local control 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 restore harmful cuts to K-12 and higher education, to stave off teacher layoffs, and to modernize school facilities - which could create new jobs. The guidelines can be found here. Additional information on education recovery funds can be found here.

The grants were approved as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus bill, which Mitchell voted for. It passed the House on January 28, by a vote of 244 to 188, and was signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009.

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