Federal Job Money Funds Bonuses in Wyoming Schools (WY)
January 3, 2011
The U.S. Department of Education persisted in giving Wyoming more than $17 million this fall for a program intended to avert teacher layoffs even after Gov. Dave Freudenthal told the federal agency the energy-rich state didn’t need the money.
Although rebuffed by Freudenthal, the U.S. Department of Education then pledged the money straight to the Wyoming Department of Education. The stat e agency in the past several weeks has approved applications from school districts around the state to use the federal windfall to pay for bonuses and other benefits for teachers and school employees.
While some Wyoming school districts intend to pay bonuses, most will use the money to cover rising health insurance and pension costs that otherwise would come out of employees’ pockets. A few districts are using the federal money to cover salaries for new teachers and staff while a single district in the state declined to apply for the federal money.
"I’m sure somebody in D.C. meant well," Freudenthal said this week. "They just didn’t know what they were doing."
Congress approved the $10 billion Education Jobs Fund Program this summer after dire warnings from the Obama Administration about the threat of teacher layoffs. The administration originally asked for $23 billion.
Freudenthal wrote to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in August to say that Wyoming didn’t need money from the program and wouldn’t apply for it.
"While Wyoming is not immune to the economic downturn, our schools have not suffered the loss of funding experienced by so many school systems around the nation," Freudenthal wrote to Duncan. "Wyoming is already generously supporting its elementary and secondary education foundation program. Schools have not been asked to cut staff, salaries or programs, nor have they taken furlough days."
Unlike most other states, Wyoming is flush with cash. State lawmakers will be facing a budget surplus of more than $1 billion when they convene in Cheyenne next month. The state, the nation’s leading producer of coal and a major player in other energy p roduction, has billions more in reserves.
Despite Freudenthal’s effort to reject the federal funding, Duncan announced in mid-October that Wyoming would get $17.5 million under the Education Jobs Fund program.
"There is a huge sense of urgency to get these funds out the door," Duncan stated in a media release announcing the Wyoming funding. "These education dollars will help Wyoming keep teachers in the classroom working with our students this school year."
Sara Gast, press officer with the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, said Thursday that no one was available to talk about the Wyoming funding until next week.
Mary Kay Hill, director of administration at the Wyoming Department of Education, said this week her agency had no choice but to take the federal money and distribute it to school districts.
"It wasn’t anything that we were instructed to advocate or criticize," Hill said. "Even if the governor says ‘no,’ the secretary (Duncan) was directed to get this into the hands of the districts."
While Wyoming hasn’t had teacher layoffs, Hill said the state also didn’t approve a cost of living increase this year for public employees.
"It goes into the pockets of teachers, school bus drivers, principals," Hill said of the federal funding.
The U.S. Department of Education wrote guidelines for states in August explaining the Education Jobs Fund Program.
According to the federal guidelines, a school or other recipient, "must use its funds only for compensation and benefits and other expenses, such as support services, necessary to retain existing employees, to recall or rehire former employees, and to hire new employees, in order to provide early childhood, elementary or secondary educational and related services."
Several attempts to reach school district officials in Wyoming for comment on how they’re spending the money were unsuccessful. Many district offices are closed for winter break.
Only one school district refused to apply for the federal money. Niobrara County School District 1 business manager Bonnie Zowada said the district had already given its employees a raise this year.
Freudenthal, a Democrat in the final few days of his second term, said Wyoming could have put the money to good use building roads and putting other people to work if the federal government had allowed it more flexibility.
"The irony is, when you look at it, it was a noble program for the parts of the country that needed it," Freudenthal said. "Frankly, we didn’t need it to retain teachers. If districts had reduced the number of teachers, that was a decision they made, because education funding had continued to go up in Wyoming."