Federal jobs bill averts needs for cuts
by Paul Socolar on Sep 15 2010 Posted in Eye on the budget
The District's budget is still balanced despiterecent state funding cutbacks, Chief Financial Officer Michael Masch told the SRC Wednesday - mostly thanks to the August adoption of a federal education jobs bill that will send $98 million to Philadelphia.
The $10 billion federal bill provides money "for one purpose and one purpose only - to create or retain education jobs," Masch explained. The funds can be expended between now and September 2012.
Masch said he expected to use half of the money - $49 million - to bring the budget into balance for the current school year and the other half next year. This is enough funding each year to protect more than 500 teacher jobs, he said.