Stimulus 101

arneduncan, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

According to an article in the New York Times today, 44-year-old Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has been given the task of disbursing some $100,000,000,000.00 dollars in funds to schools across America. Divided out by the number of public K-12 school districts in the nation that could mean each would receive a check for $7,142,587.14. Not an entirely insignificant chunk of change.

For a district the size of mine (Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland) with 133,000 students, 199 schools, and 24,000 employees the gift would measure up as just over 1/3 of 1% of our existing annual budget. For a system like my former (Jessamine County Public Schools, Kentucky) with 7,500 students, 10 schools, and 450 employees, it would come in at just under 10% of their annual operating budget.

It's a lot of money that will mean different things to different players. And did I forget to mention that post-secondary institutions are vying for their share of the cash, too?

But, of course, if the governor of South Carolina has his way and no stimulus money goes to his state, that will remove 333 public school districts from the pot of 14,000 and at least 15 colleges and universities....What a pompous moron! I hope South Carolinians recall his arrogant, ignorant little heiny...but I digress.

Good luck, Mr. Duncan!