Stimulus Patches Part Of Ore. Schools' Budget Gap

TIM FOUGHT

PORTLAND. Ore. (AP) — The math isn't so hard when it comes to the faculty of the Tigard-Tualatin school district.

This year, the district employs 640 teachers on a full-time equivalent basis. That's 56 fewer teachers than than a year ago. That's also 55 more teachers than the district would have had without the stimulus money provided by the federal government and dispensed by the state Legislature.

"We're really grateful for that federal funding," said Susan Stark Haydon, a spokeswoman for the suburban district southwest of Portland.

She and her district are hardly alone. The biggest share of spending from the federal economic stimulus package has gone to pay teachers, in Oregon and elsewhere.

But while the stimulus spending from what's called a "stabilization fund" has kept a couple thousand Oregon teachers in the public elementary and secondary classrooms, it hasn't brought stability to the school districts and probably couldn't.

The hit Oregon state government took in revenue during the Great Recession was, proportionally, one of the largest in the country, and the largest single part of the state government's budget is school aid.