AISD in line for $13.8M

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The Abilene Independent School District and other Big Country schools stand to receive millions of dollars in federal grants in the stimulus package the House is expected to vote on today.

The AISD could receive nearly $14 million over fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

But Big Country congressmen have not been swayed by the possibility of a boost in school funding as estimated by the Congressional Research Service or by President Barack Obama reaching out to them Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Abilene's congressman, U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, and the rest of the delegation said they are not supportive of the $825 billion American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009, regardless of school funding.

"The question should be: (on) every dollar that we're spending, because we're going to have to go borrow it, will it stimulate the economy and not whether these projects are worthwhile," Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, said.

The stimulus bill includes tax cuts, funding for transportation projects, school funding and other measures touted to boost the economy.

The AISD could receive nearly $5.3 million in federal funding for construction, nearly $4 million to help ensure students in districts with high numbers or percentages of poor children meet academic standards, and more than $4.5 million to educate children with disabilities, according to CRS estimates.

In the AISD's 2007-08 budget, federal money accounted for about $1.2 million of the district's total $114 million general fund revenues. The rest of the funds came from state and local taxes.

Big Country superintendents couldn't be reached Tuesday because most districts canceled class because of icy roads.

The dollars might be a worthy means to fund education, but lawmakers haven't had the opportunity to debate whether school funding would stimulate the economy, officials with Neugebauer's office said.

For another Big Country lawmaker the answer was clear: The school funding will not stimulate the economy.

"It will not create permanent jobs," said U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Midland, of the 11th Congressional District. "It will not create permanent wealth, and it comes at a cost that our great-grandchildren will still be paying the interest on that debt when they're adults."

He said he trusts residents in his district to provide their children with a good education, along with state funds.

U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry said he is not swayed by federal education grants that could come to his 13th Congressional District.

If a person is focused solely on what he'll get out of the bill, the school funding sounds great, Thornberry, R-Clarendon, said. But it doesn't sound so good when a lawmaker takes the bigger picture into consideration.

The bill is a "grab bag" of 150 federal programs, and many clearly won't create jobs at all, he said.

"I think the approach of the stimulus bill is to spread an enormous amount of money in as many places as possible," Thornberry said.

The Big Country delegation isn't wary only of school funding but the entire package.

But they were appreciative that Obama took the trouble to spend about an hour making his case for the stimulus package before House Republicans on Tuesday at the Capitol.

He also listened to their point of view.

"I'm not sure that many minds were changed, but I think it's important to be able to talk to one another," Thornberry said.

Obama told them he thinks the economy is in serious shape, and that justifies shortcuts to get the stimulus package through quickly.

"But a number of people talked about the cost and about the fact that this is not money the government has lying around," Thornberry said. "It's got to be taxed or borrowed out of one part of the economy for government to spend it in another part of the economy."

Neugebauer said he favors tax cuts and other methods of stimulating investment and job creation in the economy -- not government spending. He's also unhappy about the $1.2 trillion deficit the country is on track for this year.

"That number could easily go higher and probably will go higher with a stimulus package," Neugebauer said.

What's more, the price tag of the stimulus package is more than $1 trillion when the cost of paying it back is counted, Neugebauer said.

Conaway said Obama was "charming and self-deprecating but unpersuasive in his appeal."

Conaway plans to oppose the bill, saying that if the country is in a temporary recession, whether it lasts multiple years or not, then why borrow money that will never be repaid to address a short-term problem?

"And that's what we're asking Congress to do and the American people to swallow in a giant way," Conaway said.