U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that nearly $1.4 billion is now available for Illinois under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This funding will lay the foundation for a generation of education reform and help save thousands of teaching jobs at risk of state and local budget cuts.

"The real impact of the nearly $2 billion Illinois has received so far will be determined not at the federal level, but at the local level in districts across the state," Duncan said. "We will be watching to see if Illinois state leaders, superintendents, principals and teachers seize this critical opportunity to turn around whole systems and schools."

Illinois is receiving $1.4 billion today per the State's successful completion of Part 1 of the State Stabilization Application, which was made available April 1. Eighty two percent of these funds are to be distributed to public elementary, secondary, and higher education institutions, with the remaining 18 percent to be available for education, school modernization, public safety, or other government services. Illinois, California and South Dakota are the first three states to successfully complete applications and be approved for the first round of state stabilization funding. Illinois will be eligible to apply for another $678 million in state stabilization funds this fall.

To date, Illinois has received nearly $500 million in education stimulus funds—representing a combination of funding for Title I, IDEA, Vocational Rehabilitation grants, Independent Living grants, Impact Aid dollars and Homeless Education grants. On April 1, Illinois received more than $210 million in Title I funding and more than $270 million in IDEA funding. This amount represents 50 percent of the total Title I and IDEA funding for which Illinois is eligible. On April 1, Illinois also received more than $10 million in Vocational Rehab funds and nearly $2 million in Independent Living funds. On April 10, the state received more than $624,000 in Impact Aid Funding and $2.6 million in Homeless Education grants.

In order to receive today's funds, Illinois provided assurances that they will collect, publish, analyze and act on basic information regarding the quality of classroom teachers, annual student improvements, college readiness, the effectiveness of state standards and assessments, progress on removing charter caps, and interventions in turning around underperforming schools.

Illinois is also required by the U.S. Department of Education to report the number of jobs saved through Recovery Act funding, the amount of state and local tax increases averted, and how funds are used.

To view Illinois's application, please visit: http://www.ed.gov/programs/statestabilization/resources.html.

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