N.J. stands to get $268 million in school aid through the jobs bill

New Jersey could get $268 million to help avert teacher layoffs in the jobs bill worked out Wednesday in Congress, according to Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D., N.J.).

"This vital funding would preserve more than 3,000 jobs in New Jersey alone and provide relief to the state during a time of budget crisis," Lautenberg said in a written statement Wednesday.

State Education Department spokesman Alan Guenther declined to comment on the legislation, which includes $10 billion for schools nationwide.

The number of teachers who have lost their jobs as a result of reduced state education aid will not be known until schools open, said New Jersey Education Association spokesman Steve Baker. He estimated that several thousand positions had been lost.

The federal funding would make "a significant difference," but "it doesn't close the gap" created by $1.3 billion in state cuts since February, Baker said.

Congressional aides could not say Wednesday when federal money would be available if the measure passed.

Afshin Mohamadi, spokesman for Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), said that he expected it to go out quickly but that states would have to decide how to distribute it.

Reaction among local school district leaders was mixed. Although they welcomed the prospect of additional funding, none said he or she would add personnel without an absolute guarantee of the grants.

"There is no way I could do anything as far as interviewing and hiring anyone until we have the money in our account," said Charles Earling, superintendent of the Monroe Township School District.

"We would need to have some Department of Education assurance the dollars would indeed follow very quickly," Waterford Superintendent Gary Dentino wrote in an e-mail.

Collingswood Superintendent Scott Oswald said his district still was waiting for state reimbursement for supplies and equipment it bought last summer after being promised federal stimulus funds.

Superintendents also expressed reluctance to hire with one-time funding. Next year is expected to be another tough one for school districts, given the state's lower tax-levy cap, rising costs, and the ailing economy.

Under those conditions, "it's unlikely we would move forward with hiring anybody," said Emily Capella, superintendent of the Lenape Regional High School District. She called the federal grants "a Band-Aid."

"With no sustained funding for the jobs," said Robert Goldschmidt, superintendent of the Riverside school district, administrators could face "a funding cliff" in the 2011-12 school year.