Southeast Texas P-16 Council

Where did the $800+ million stimulus money go and what is left?  The website EdMoney.org allows you to track the money district by district.

Here is the web link  http://www.edmoney.org/data/schools/texas/ for Texas.  Use the letters on the lower right hand side of the site to find the district you are interested in.

The landmark project is a crowd sourced with reporters from 36 news outlets in 27 states taking part in a collaborative project overseen by the nonprofit Hechinger Report and the Education Writers Association to examine how that windfall is being spent. Interviewing scores of students, teachers, researchers and education officials at all levels of government, participating reporters set out to determine how the nation’s schools are actually spending the money and whether the changes it sparks are likely to last.

The Report and EWA worked for three months with the news outlets, helping them investigate stimulus spending on education in their communities. A pair of national-level reporters and a project editor, hired by The Report and EWA, also spent that time digging into information supplied by local news outlets to report and write national stories.

“I think the response to this project shows that there is a big demand for these kinds of crowdsourcing-style news investigations,” said Richard Lee Colvin, editor of The Hechinger Report. “We’re seeing a new model for collaborations among news organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit.”

“When journalists team up, we are greater than the sum of our parts, and the same holds true of nonprofits that work to promote high-quality education journalism,” said Caroline Hendrie, executive director of EWA, a membership organization based in Washington, D.C. “This groundbreaking collaboration clears the ways for others to follow.”

The stories will appear in local newspapers over the next several weeks, depending on the needs and preferences of individual publications. The national stories and links to all local coverage that is currently online can be found on The Hechinger Report and EWA websites (http://hechingerreport.org/category/special_reports/economic_stimulus/ and http://www.edmoney.org/, respectively).

Nearly $109 million dollars of Federal Stimulus money have been awarded to Golden Triangle entities, a review of reports from www.Recovery.gov shots.

SE TX P-16 tallied the amounts awarded in the zip codes of Hardin, Jefferson and Orange Counties. Not all zip codes had award listed, but that did not mean they did not benefit from stimulus money. For instance 77707 in west Beaumont did not have awards listed, but benefit from awards to the Beaumont Independent School District and other government organizations.

Here is the Recovery.gov listing by zip codes for our area:  (click on a zip code to see a breakout)

Zip Code | Award Amount | City/Area
77611      $1,324,911      Bridge City
77619      $13,690      Groves
77622      $884,742       Fannett
77625      $1,562,137      Kountze
77627      $2,946,761       Nederland
77630      $6,888,576       Orange (west)
77631     $2,123,482       Orange
77632      $2,207,435      North Orange- Mauriceville
77639      $1,239,860       Orangefield
77640      $32,324,954      Port Acres
77641      $5,331,052      Central PA
77642      $2,708,163      Port Arthur/Groves
77651      $2,479,472      Port Neches
77655      $143,190      Sabine Pass
77656      $2,415,362      Silsbee
77657      $1,978,642       Lumberton
77659      $1,354,610      Sour Lake
77664      $699,313       Warren
77665      $4,839,648       Winnie/ Hamshire
77701      $15,193,225       Beaumont
77702       $174,753      Beaumont
77703      $4,759,785      North Beaumont
77705      $1,569,700       Beaumont South
77706      $13,730,575       Beaumont North
77720      $48,919       Beaumont PO boxes

Total $108,942,957