The U.S. House of Representatives passed an economic stimulus bill Wednesday that would pump an estimated $819 billion into the U.S. economy over the next two years, including a $140 billion boost in educational funding.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which must make its way through the U.S. Senate before funds would be released, outlines increases in federal funding to K-12 schools as well as higher education.

The package would invest $20 billion to increase the energy-efficiency of public school and university buildings, and $79 billion to build a stabilization fund to protect the jobs of teachers and staff, according to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor's Web site.

The package also proposes an increase in the maximum Pell Grant Scholarship awards by $500 and creates a new $2,500 tuition tax credit, which would benefit four million families, according to the site.

California's public schools are slated to receive an estimated total of $10 billion in federal relief.

According to the California Department of Education, the largest allocations include about $4.9 billion for a stabilization fund to prevent cutbacks in educational funding, $1.7 billion for facility modifications and $1.3 billion in support for low income family districts.

The money from the stimulus bill is meant to supplement the funding the state has already budgeted for education, said Jeff Vincent, deputy director of UC Berkeley's Center for Cities and Schools.

He added that there is language in the package preventing the state from withdrawing state funding and replacing it with funding from the federal package.

"It would be too easy for states to retreat on commitments," he said. "I think that California would probably do that if they were allowed to."

Jacki Ruby Fox, president of the Alameda County board of education, said that in the past, California governors had taken state money away from schools when extra money for education became available.

"I wouldn't hold my breath quite yet," she said. "Or I wouldn't start breathing about banking the money."

If the package is approved by the U.S. Senate, the Berkeley Unified School District is expected to receive just shy of $2.6 million in 2009 and about $1.5 million in 2010.

Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Bill Huyett said $4 million over two years isn't enough to dramatically help the district, since $1.2 million would go toward construction and the district is anticipating a $6 million budget cut from the state in 2009.

"It helps, but it's not permanent and it's not as big as people think," Huyett said. "The package is helpful, but it doesn't solve the problem."

If districts do ultimately receive funding from the package, Ruby said she hoped it would decrease the number of anticipated layoffs.

"If the money is passed by Congress and the district knows that it's coming in, we won't go through the early turmoil of pink slips and layoffs," she said.

Thomas Davidoff, assistant professor in the Haas School of Business, said he anticipated the UC system would also see funding from the package, which he said is a wise investment on the part of the government.

"I happen to believe education is an investment where you get a higher rate of return relative to, say, road building," he said.

Tags: ECONOMIC STIMULUS PROJECT, BERKELEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT