By Eric Kelderman

Washington

The federal stimulus package has saved or created 325,000 jobs in public schools and colleges across the country, according to a report released on Monday by the White House's Office of Management and Budget. But the legislation's actual impact on higher-education employment is far from concrete.

The $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, passed in February, includes nearly $100-billion in federal aid for education, including increased spending for student grants, Federal Work-Study, and competitive grants in scientific research, as well as more money for low-income and disabled students in public schools. But the largest portion of those dollars, nearly $40-billion in the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, is meant to shore up state appropriations for education and prevent large layoffs at schools and colleges.

While the White House has promised unprecedented openness in accounting for those dollars, the data in the new report are less than detailed in many regards. Federal regulations do not require states to enumerate specifically how many jobs supported by stimulus dollars went to classroom teachers or college faculty members, for example, or to distinguish between jobs saved or created. Instead, states had to include only a general narrative description of the "types" of jobs that were paid for with the stimulus money, and many states did not even include that information in their reports.

In addition, public higher-education institutions and systems estimated the number of positions that were covered by the extra federal aid using mathematical formulas rather than actual payroll data.

For example, the Ohio Board of Regents, which collects data on Ohio's statewide public higher-education system, estimated the fiscal-stabilization money had saved 626 jobs so far. It calculated that number by dividing 80 percent of the $56-million in stimulus money that campuses had received as of the reporting deadline—out of a total $309-million—by the average salary the institutions pay employees.

Collecting the exact data on tens of thousands of employees by the October reporting deadline was not feasible, said Richard L. Petrick, vice chancellor for finance at the Ohio Board of Regents.

Victor Redding, budget director of the Nevada System of Higher Education, said his office also based its estimated number of jobs on the amount of fiscal-stabilization dollars for this fiscal year, $92.4-million, divided by average salaries at each of the system's seven institutions. That decision was based on White House guidance that said institutions didn't have to report an exact number of jobs, but what the recovery act money "allowed you to do."

"Is it an exact science? No," he said, "but it is probably a pretty good representation."

The Nevada system estimates that the federal recovery money, including research grants, has supported approximately 2,100 jobs.

Anthony Wilder Miller, deputy secretary of education, added that allowing those kinds of estimates and flexibility was necessary to balance the need for openness against the practical demands of collecting specific employment data.

In other states, such as Alabama, the fiscal year has just begun and the stimulus money has barely begun to be spent, making it appear that very few, if any, jobs have been preserved there by the extra federal aid.

On Alabama's Web site for reporting how stimulus money is being spent, the state's two-year public-college system lists zero jobs created or retained with the $33.6-million in federal stimulus money that the Legislature has apportioned to the institutions.

Anita L. Archie, director of government relations for the Alabama Community College system, explained that the state's fiscal year began on October 1, and that the system would not technically receive any of the money until November.

The variations in state spending and reporting are to be expected, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said on Monday during a conference call with reporters. "Different states are going to move at different times," he said.

Daniel J. Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said the public should definitely scrutinize how states and institutions are spending the stimulus money.

At the same time, however, he has little doubt that the increased federal support has largely done its job of preventing job losses.

"The recovery act certainly has done what was intended, by helping the institutions bridge the gap," Mr. Hurley said. "I don't think the money was actually a jobs stimulus, but it definitely has been a jobs-retention bill."