The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Creating and Saving Jobs (Updated 2.12.09)
Building a Strong, Competitive 21st Century Economy
Economists across the board agree that the key to jumpstarting our economy is putting Americans back to work quickly. Earlier this month major U.S. corporations announced another 75,000 in job cuts, adding to the 2.6 million jobs our economy has lost in the last year.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will start rebuilding our economy immediately by creating or saving 3 to 4 million jobs – including hundreds of thousands of jobs in the education sector – and provide workers with the training and skills they need to succeed in green and other emerging industries. In addition to creating jobs in other sectors of our economy, the following education investments will save or boost job growth:
Modernizing our schools and universities – creating green jobs
- Provides $48.6 billion for services to low-income students, students with disabilities, and career tech to modernize schools and colleges, which would include facility repairs, updating technology, and making facilities more energy-efficient. According to estimates, this could create thousands of new jobs in the construction, energy, technology, and other industries.
Investing in early education
- Provides $2.1 billion for Head Start, and Early Head Start, which provides comprehensive development services for low-income preschool children, infants and toddlers. These investments will create 50,000 new jobs, increasing demand for early educators, transportation, nutrition providers, and more;
- Create room for 124,000 additional children to attend Head Start and Early Head Start.
Helping states prevent teacher layoffs and other critical public sector jobs
- Provides $53.6 billion state stabilization fund to help prevent education-related layoffs and restore harmful cuts to education funding;
- Includes $8 billion for states and local governments to meet needs in public safety, health and other critical public services, which may include education.
Training workers for 21st century jobs
- Provides nearly $4 billion to prepare adult, youth and dislocated workers for green jobs, and other emerging industries, including training for retrofitting buildings, green construction and production of renewable energy;
- Include $1.2 billion to create job opportunities for younger Americans, including summer jobs.
Creating service and volunteer opportunities to rebuild America
- Creates work study opportunities for an additional 130,000 college students in a field related to either their major or community service;
- Invests $200 million for 16,000 new slots in Americorps which will create more opportunities for more Americans of all generations to serve in their communities.