WW-P officials are unsure whether a federal bill aimed at saving education jobs that was passed over the summer will have any impact on funding in this year’s budget.
Earlier this month the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Education Jobs Fund bill, which will provide $10 billion to help states avoid teacher and staff layoffs in the coming year. Of that money, $268 million was sent to New Jersey.
According to the federal Department of Education, “that $10 billion fund 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.”
However, WW-P school board president Hemant Marathe said it is too early to determine the impact here. “We don’t know yet whether we are going to get any money out of that program.”
“At this point, we are not planning any changes to our budget because we don’t know,” said Marathe.
While the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District’s $155.9 million budget received voter approval, the flat measure reflected a $7.56 million loss in state aid this year. To cover that gap, the district had to eliminate some 50 teachers.
