Portland Education Jobs Created by ARRA

How is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stacking up when it comes to creating Portland education jobs?

The State of Oregon recently released a report detailing exactly how federal stimulus money has been spent thus far. The report found that almost two out of every three jobs funded by stimulus spending in Oregon since February were education positions, many of which were teachers and professors.

The report found that the following educational institutions were among the top in the state to use stimulus funding in order to create jobs:

• Oregon State University has spent $17.8 million in state fiscal stabilization funds and preserved or created about 394 full-time jobs, making it the top creator of teaching jobs under ARRA funding.
• Portland Public Schools have spent $10.2 million and created or preserved about 324 full-time jobs, many of which are in special education.
• Portland State University spent all of its general-purpose stimulus money, or about $52 million, on faculty salaries and benefits and hired or saved a total of about 320 jobs.
• Beaverton School District, which is the third-largest school district in the state, has created about 281 jobs with an undisclosed amount of general purpose funding.

Although the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton area's education and health services industry has slightly declined on a month-to-month basis, the industry has come out ahead when compared to last year.

The area's education and health services industry employed 129,200 workers during August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 129,400 workers during July, but a .7 percent increase from last year.