Edujobs or Race to Top: Which is Worth More to Kentucky?

This from Politics K-12:

Depending on which state you live in, the edujobs bill may not be such a good deal—especially if your state might win a Race to the Top grant.

Given all of the debate about the Congressional proposal to siphon off $500 million from the Race to the Top program to give every state an additional chunk of money to save teachers' jobs, it seems valuable to look at the trade-offs states would have to make....

States that would not be better off with edujobs are those that would rank near the cutoff point for the Round 2 winner's circle, since a loss of $500 million from the $3.4 billion left in Race to the Top could mean that one or two otherwise winning states could become losers. In most cases, states' Race to the Top grants would be larger than their edujobs allocations.

The Education Commission of the States has been doing a little cyphering in an effort to determine which states would benefit most from passage of EduJobs versus the benefits from Race to the Top Round 2.

The proposal currently before the U S House would create an “education jobs fund” which many are calling the EduJobs program. This program would provide $10 billion to states to create or save education positions in K-12 public schools. Provisions were added to the bill to ensure that funds are used to supplement and not supplant current education funding in states.

• For the 2010-11 school year states must maintain their K-12 and Higher Education spending at FY 2008-09 levels.
• In addition, states must maintain both K-12 and Higher Education spending as the same percentage of the overall state budget as they did in FY 2008-09.

ECS estimates the bill would save just under 137,000 K-12 teaching positions.

If EduJobs passes in it's present form, Kentucky stands to gain $133,778,719 which would save an estimated 2,100 teaching jobs.

Kentucky's chances in Round 2 of RTTT are open to speculation but casual estimates are that the amount could be zero.