FEMA Won't Reimburse Texas Schools For Teachers, Textbooks

Quote:
Texas Schools Need Estimated $250M To Educate Displaced Students

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas schools won't get federal emergency funds to pay for additional teachers and textbooks to accommodate students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, according to a memo released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Texas schools will need an estimated $450 million to educate the anticipated influx of students displaced by the hurricane. Officials had hoped those costs would be covered by grants from FEMA because Texas has been included in the disaster declaration.

But, according to a FEMA memo sent to state officials on Saturday, Texas schools will be eligible for reimbursement for temporary classroom buildings, mental health counselors and school computers. Hiring additional teachers and the purchase of books is not eligible "at this time," according to the memo.

Texas officials are still hoping other federal money will be available to them to cover a major cost to schools handling students from the disaster.

"This is just the FEMA relief part, this is not the whole picture," said Gov. Rick Perry's spokesman, Robert Black. "We fully expect the U.S. Department of Education to pay for the costs of educating the thousands of new students Texas is going to have in public schools. That is the request we have in to the federal government."

In total, at least 372,000 students have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and there are no clear answers about where the money will come from to educate them, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Monday.

link: www.click2houston.com...

So what does that multi billion dollar budget FEMA gets actually do?