U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that $301 million is now available for Kansas under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This funding will lay the foundation for a generation of education reform and help save hundreds of thousands of teaching jobs at risk of state and local budget cuts. Kansas will be eligible to apply for another $148 million this fall. Today's funding is being made available per Kansas's successful completion of Part 1 of the State Stabilization Application, which was made available on April 1st.

"The $301 million Kansas will receive today is part of the single largest boost in education funding in recent history," said Duncan. "The President's leadership and support from Congress have made this historic investment possible. Kansas can now utilize these funds to save jobs and lay the groundwork for a generation of education reform."

To date, Kansas has received $98 million in education stimulus funds-representing a combination of funding for Title I, IDEA, Vocational Rehabilitation Grants, Independent Living Grants and Impact Aid. On April 1, Kansas received more than $35 million in Title I funding and $58 million in IDEA funding. This represents 50 percent of the Title I and IDEA funding Kansas is eligible for in total. On April 1, Kansas also received $2.6 million in Vocational Rehab funds and more than $564,000 in Independent Living funds. On April 10, Kansas received $1.5 million in Impact Aid funding.

In order to receive today's funds, Kansas provided assurances that it will collect, publish, analyze and act on basic information regarding the quality of classroom teachers, annual student improvements, college readiness, the effectiveness of state standards and assessments, progress on removing charter caps and interventions in turning around underperforming schools.

Kansas is also required by the Department of Education to report the number of jobs saved through Recovery Act funding, the amount of state and local tax increases averted, and how funds are used.

See Kansas and other state applications for initial funding under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund Program at http://www.ed.gov/programs/statestabilization/resources.html.

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