Congressman Pascrell Lauds Federal Funds for SO-M

In a prepared statement released by his office, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr., who represents South Orange as part of the Eighth Congressional District, today applauded the announcement of $214,984 from the federal Education Jobs Fund coming to the South Orange-Maplewood School District to save teaching jobs.
 
"Anyone who spends just a little time with young people in a classroom knows that these are some of the best-invested federal dollars in our communities, especially during times of severe economic turmoil," said Pascrell, a House Ways and Means Committee member who is a former high school history teacher. "This money will be going directly towards keeping teachers in the classroom by helping school districts cope with the effect the recession has had on their budgets.  Every dollar we spend on our children's education is a dollar spent on a secure and prosperous future for our country and its citizens. It's up to us to help all students realize that better future. That's what this funding is helping us accomplish."

The money will not be used to rehire the paraprofessionals outsourced by the school district last year in a budget-cutting move, Superintendent of Schools Brian Osborne said on Monday night. "This is not enough to reverse the action we took with the paraprofessionals," Osborne said. "It's not even close." The district saved $1.5 million with the move.

How will the money be spent? It's too soon to say. "We've only known about this for 90 minutes," Osborne said Monday night.

 Districts 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.  The funding to New Jersey's Eighth Congressional District is part of the $10 billion Education Jobs Fund, which Rep. Pascrell supported in July and then again in August when it became part of the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. The national fund is projected to save the jobs of 140,000 teachers throughout the nation, including 3,900 teaching jobs in New Jersey, according to the Council of Economic Advisors.
 
States can distribute their funding to school districts based on their own primary funding formula or districts' relative share of federal Title I funds.