Education Stimulus Funds Described

ED Recovery Act Report: Summary of Programs and State-by-State Data


The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provided approximately $100 billion to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) with the initial goal of delivering emergency education funding to states. Immediately after President Obama signed ARRA into law on February 17, 2009, ED acted swiftly to provide a large portion of these funds to states in response to drastic budget shortfalls. Over $67 billion in formula grants were awarded as of September 30, 2009.

The largest portion of ARRA funds, $35.4 billion, was delivered through the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF). In addition, $12.6 billion in ARRA funding was added to Title I, IDEA, and other formula grant programs, and $8.7 billion was allocated for Student Financial Assistance (Pell Grants and Federal Work Study).

As part of the unprecedented transparency requirements of ARRA, the first quarterly public accounting of all expenditures to date was posted by the Recovery, Accountability, and Transparency Board on October 30, 2009. The data, now available on www.recovery.gov, indicate that approximately 400,000 jobs have been retained or created through ED grants. Of these jobs, 325,000 are specifically education jobs, with the remaining portion attributable to more general public service positions. It reveals that the rapid distribution of this funding helped states fill significant education budget gaps in order to avert layoffs of personnel in school districts and universities across the nation.

This report describes each of the ARRA education grants and their allocations. It also has a profile of each state that summarizes any restoration of education budgets by ARRA funds, and compiles all reported information regarding the state's use of ARRA funds per program. Lastly, this report explains the next phase of ARRA education grants and ED's ongoing efforts to regularly reach out to applicants and stakeholders to provide as much information as possible on the criteria, requirements, and process for each of the grants.