TEA Offers Texas School Districts a Primer on Stimulus Funds

DALLAS — Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott sent a letter to the state's 1,228 school districts this week providing guidance on what to do with the estimated $6.2 billion of federal stimulus funds expected to make their way to schools across the state.

"I urge every Texas school district to implement creative and innovative ideas that will provide for long-term stability when investing these funds," Scott said.

Last month, Scott formed a 22-member stimulus task force to handle the funds the state anticipates from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"It appears schools will have to work quickly to receive their share of these funds and right now there's just not a lot of information — or at least a lot of accurate information — out there for schools to better understand the guidelines," said a representative from the Texas Association of School Business Officials.

Texas expects to receive about $969 million that will be used for the state's IDEA, or Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, programs, and another roughly $1.2 billion for the No Child Left Behind initiative that includes school improvement grants. Scott said grant applications for these funds will be available April 15.

Other federal grant programs that will be funded with stimulus money include education technology and school improvements.

Texas also will receive $594 million of tax-credit bond capacity as a result of the ARRA, according to the Texas Association of School Boards.

Proceeds from the bonds will fund new construction, renovations, equipment purchases, curriculum development, and teacher training, according to the TASB. Additional bond proceeds will be distributed to school districts that plan to use them for capital expenditures that reduce energy consumption in public buildings, the TASB said.

TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson confirmed the state expects to receive that level of bonding capacity but added that it isn't exactly clear how the bonds will be sold as of yet, nor which districts will be eligible to receive the proceeds from the debt.

Bond issuance from Texas school districts has slowed of late, as the state recently suspended its triple-A rated bond guarantee program, the Permanent School Fund, due to the declining value of the fund. Officials now must acquire private insurance and rely on the district's underlying ratings when bringing debt to market.

A handful of deals have been delayed until the return of the PSF, which Scott anticipates may be as soon as September.

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