The Governor’s Office, along with the state Department of Education, is preparing to apply for education money available in the federal stimulus package.
The information relayed during a March 4 committee hearing was one the first indications that Gov. Jan Brewer’ staff has hunkered down and is actively working to qualify for the federal dollars. Until the committee hearing, the executive office had only expressed specific interest in trying to qualify for $50 million in child care money available to Arizona under the stimulus package.
More than one-third of the $4.2 billion available to Arizona from the federal economic recovery package can be used for education. That sum will come from two main sources in the stimulus package — about $1 billion from a stabilization fund and nearly $500 million in secondary assistance.
But under the stimulus’ requirements, states have to apply for the stabilization money.
Doug Nick of the Arizona Department of Education told the Arizona Capitol Times, “They have asked us to give them our information as to what programs we would want to use the money for based on the parameters that are laid out in the law.”
Nick, ADE’s associate superintendent for federal relations, said his office has provided the Governor’s Office with information and is working to provide more details regarding the discretionary fund component in the stabilization package.
That component amounts to $185 million out of about $1billion in stabilization money that Arizona could qualify to receive. The rest — some $832 million — can be used only for education.
The Governor’s Office may also use that discretionary fund for education under the stimulus law.
“We are working with the governor, of course, to ensure that we get as much opportunity to use that money for education as possible,” Nick told members of the Senate Education Accountability and Reform Committee.
The Legislature slashed funding for K-12 and higher education by a total of about $275 million when they fixed a $1.6 billion deficit in the fiscal 2009 budget. Brewer signed the legislation almost immediately after it arrived on her desk in January.
Another $5 billion in grants are available to states through the U.S. Department of Education. The grants are competitive, and Arizona would have to argue its case in order to qualify for the funding.
To qualify, Arizona must demonstrate it has made significant progress in achieving equity in teacher distribution, among other criteria. Under federal law, states education departments are required to ensure that highly qualified educators provide instruction and that poor and minority pupils are not taught by inexperienced or out-of-field teachers at a higher rate than other pupils. 
In addition, the federal education department may reserve up to $650 million of that money for “innovation funding.” The money would be distributed to bolster partnerships between schools and  nonprofit organizations — for such things as tutoring centers, for example — across the nation.
To be eligible, schools would have to show that they have significantly closed the achievement gaps among students, that the state has excelled on annual assessments for two or more years and that it has made significant improvement in other areas such as graduation rates and recruitment of highly qualified teachers.
Sen. John Huppenthal, chairman of the Senate Education Accountability and Reform Committee, urged teachers who attended the committee hearing to be alert about opportunities and to make sure information flows to the Education Department.
“There are tens of millions of dollars at stake here for Arizona’s schools, and we really need to make sure that we have the very best applications possible,” Huppenthal said. “We can’t afford to miss out on this one.”