Santa Maria Sun / News

Political Watch 08.26

California will soon be receiving $487 million in additional American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, according to a press release from U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara). The money is expected to be used to preserve education jobs throughout the state during the upcoming fiscal year. More than $53 billion in stimulus funding has been set aside for the California Department of Education to manage a State Fiscal Stabilization Fund and save education jobs threatened by state budget cuts. According to Capps’ office, California has already received more than $10 billion from a number of Department of Education programs to preserve education jobs, implement education reforms, improve school technology, fund school construction, and provide financial assistance to college students. “This Recovery Act funding is essential to keeping teachers in California classrooms,” Capps said in the release. “It is critically important to continuing our economic recovery that we preserve the jobs of the teachers who educate our children. This funding, along with $1 billion for California teachers’ jobs in a jobs bill signed by the president last week, will go a long way toward ensuring that children on the Central and South [coasts] start the school year off right.”