Many Oklahoma Schools Using Federal Aid on Teachers (OK)

January 6, 2011

A key Oklahoma official said this week he is encouraged by the number of state schools that submitted plans to spend their share of provided federal money primarily to keep teachers on the job.

Figures show 364 school districts out of the 529 that qualified for the money have had their plans approved.

That adds up to about $74 million of the roughly $116 million Oklahoma was allocated.

“I am extremely encouraged,” Jack Herron, assistant state schools superintendent for financial services, said in a telephone interview.

Herron emphasized the process did not get under way for schools until the last half of November.

“Each school has had to really jump in there,” he said.

State figures indicate 44 of the school districts already have had claims paid totaling about $3 million.

Those school districts include Owasso, which has had about $244,000 of its $1.4 million paid so far, and Sand Springs, which has about $163,000 of its $946,169 pai d.

Even though U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan pushed to get the $10 billion that Congress provided out the door quickly, schools legally have until September 2012 to spend the money.

And despite the emphasis on saving teacher jobs, that law also gives schools some flexibility on how they can spend the money.

Early on, state schools Superintendent Sandy Garrett had expressed frustration with the push from federal officials to spend the money quickly while keeping in place federal rules that could cause poor states problems with doing that.

Herron said he understood Garrett’s concerns and that Oklahoma schools appear to be cautious in forming plans for the federal money.