The region’s smallest school district will get more federal aid than any other in Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties under the formulas used to distribute education funding in the impending economic stimulus package.

Excluding the school construction funding that has largely been dropped from the plan, the Kiryas Joel School District, which serves about 280 special-education students and has a roughly $13 million budget this year, will get $6.3 million in stimulus money over two years, according to aid figures provided by Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office.

By comparison, the projected funding totals, minus construction money, for the area’s two largest districts will be $5.5 million for Newburgh, which has an enrollment of roughly 12,230, and $2 million for Monroe-Woodbury, which serves more than 7,500 students.

The explanation for that disparity lies in federal education programs that would drive the funding: Title I, which is for low-income students; and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which is for special-education students.

Targeting the aid that way inevitably directs an inordinate share to Kiryas Joel, a school district that exclusively serves special-needs children in a community with high poverty rates.

The Senate version of the stimulus package dropped $20 billion in school construction funding from the House bill and trimmed $40 billion from the $79 billion that would go to states to avoid chopping spending on education and other areas.

The $790 billion compromise plan announced yesterday largely sided with the Senate on those changes, restoring just $4 billion for school construction and $5 billion to the so-called state stabilization funds.

(Source: Times Herald Record)