While politicians argue about how to divvy up the money, some local superintendents say they aren’t counting the school funds created a recent federal jobs bill until they have a check in hand

“You can’t bank on it,” said Sandra Talbert, superintendent of Lorena Independent School District.

Cash-strapped Lorena school district is asking its taxpayers for the permission to raise the tax rate this fall in order to keep schools open and keep teachers employed.

But Talbert said she’s not counting yet the extra funds she stands to get from the federal jobs bill because in school funding, things seem to change often.

“We’ll just have to wait and see how it shakes out,” she said.

Texas school districts would get $830 million from the $26 billion spending bill. The state’s amount is estimated to cover about 14,500 teacher salaries.

A Texas-specific provision requires the funding to be disbursed under federal school funding formulas. Last year, Texas lawmakers accepted more than $3 billion in federal money for education but then moved state dollars out of schools to cover other costs and to balance the budget.

Using a federal formula to spend the funds favors schools with a heavy poverty population.

Lorena ISD would get about $60,000, according to figures compiled by the Texas Education Agency. If the state formula were used, Lorena ISD would get more than $263,000.

Midway ISD would also fare better under the state formula, receiving $765,000 more than the federal formula would funnel the district. Gary Faunce, Midway ISD assistant superintendent for finance said he also was hesitant to count the money until he had it.

wgragg@wacotrib.com

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Dividing federal money for schools

All school districts will get money from the $830 million jobs bill. But the majority of McLennan County school districts would get more money if the money was passed out using a state formula, as opposed to the federal formula, which is based on Title 1, a program that funnels extra money to urban school districts with a higher percentage of poor children, such as Waco ISD.

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