OTHER OPINIONS : Sticker shock

Stimulus funds for education are worth the trouble

By Northwest Arkansas Times

Posted: July 27, 2009 at 7:39 a.m.

• Print item
• E-mail
• Share
• Tweet

FAYETTEVILLE — The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - President Obama's $787 billion gambit to jump-start an American economy badly shaken by a lingering recession - has given plenty of ammo for critics of the White House. They say it isn't putting people to work fast enough. The president's friends in Congress say recovery takes time.

Of that funding, Arkansas' cut is $2.9 billion. About $954 million will be funneled to health services: Medicaid, food stamps, child care, Head Start, elderly nutrition and the like.

Other areas include education ($475.5 million), fiscal stabilization ($443.9 million), housing and labor ($454.3 million), transportation ($379.5 million) and so on.

Somewhere in this enormous pot of cash is $28.1 million that has been set aside for schools in Washington County. Of that, Springdale will receive approximately $13 million. Fayetteville should receive $8.5 million.

Much of the funding is of the discretionary kind (schools can generally spend it as they see fit), though dollars for disabled and disadvantaged kids also figure into this equation.

Springdale has already said about $3 million of its cut will make Springdale High School more energy efficient via new windows and heating and air systems, which should go along nicely with the enormous renovation effort unfolding on that campus.

Fayetteville schools officials have already said they will dedicate at least $5 million toward construction of a new Happy Hollow Elementary School to replace the existing building on the east side of town.

These are great boons for our schools - if for no other reason than they add up to cost savings that will allow our school districts to spend local taxpayer dollars elsewhere, thus making the public's dollars go further and effect more positive change. These are definite advantages to the stimulus effort in general.

Not that people out there aren't rolling their eyes.

The Fayetteville School District has also put some of its stimulus funds toward a summer literacy program at Owl Creek School that targets at-risk students who have completed kindergarten, first or second grades. The idea isto bring these kids (about 130 children in all) up to snuff with the rest of their classmates when it comes to reading.

Studies show that it's critical to get kids caught up as quickly as possible because the odds of success as they grow older become lower and lower.

Some folks have flipped over the price tag - not of the program exactly, but the dollars being funneled into teachers' pockets. Teachers are scheduled to take home $8,000 - that's for 12 days of classroom instruction and three days of preparation. That adds up to about $533 per day.

Pretty good work if you can get it.

Since this story wound up on the Northwest Arkansas Times' front page several days ago, we've heard a fair bit of complaining. About the cost, of course.

It's not the way we would suggest government should run, but such criticism is directed more at the stimulus spending than at the school district's decision to use some of that money for a valuable and needed program to improve the literacy of at-risk students.

How much is it worth to set a student on a better course toward academic achievement and acquisition of knowledge?

How much payback will there be on that investment over the years? One can never tell for sure. But it makes sense to use money allocated at the federal level as much as possible to address local concerns.

We're talking long-term impact on students who will have a better opportunity to read proficiently, produce better test scores, deliver better grades, do well in college, and evolve into citizens who contribute to society. If all that happens - and it well may not happen without spending these stimulus funds - it's tough to argue that the Leap Ahead program didn't stimulate the economy. Again, in the long-term.

Certainly giving local teachers a bit of a boost in their income can't be at the center of these complaints. After all, most folks around here would likely argue teachers don't get enough money. And we hope those teachers spend some, if not all, of that money right here in the community they serve.

- Northwest Arkansas Times

Opinion, Pages 5 on 07/27/2009

Comments

To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers. Please read our comment policy.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.