As a result of a Freedom of Information Act request, I obtained information from VVSD confirming that a previous report of 130 jobs "created" on Recovery Illinois was just pretend.
Because Illinois is flat broke, the state decided to use American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, "ARRA", a.k.a. stimulus funds to replace state aid to schools. The state of Illinois' reporting methodology for jobs created under the heading Job Creation Figures is:
The data collected from the January recipient reports represents job activity directly funded or reimbursed with ARRA dollars. Recipients objectively reported the number of jobs (FTEs) paid for, or are going to be reimbursed with, Recovery Act dollars. This is different from the October reporting period when recipients were asked to report employment activity that would not have occurred without the enactment of the Recovery Act.
Note that even though the requirements are different for the October and January reporting periods, the result is the same - the illusion of job creation. In reality, the state of Illinois just reclassified state aid it was already obligated to pay local school districts as stimulus funds, and magically jobs were "created".
VVSD's original guesstimate in the October reporting period was a "hypothetical number of 65 total jobs saved or created" total in the 2009 and 2010 reporting periods. The state of Illinois took liberties with this number, and originally reported 130 total jobs created for the 2009 and 2010 reporting periods, counting the 65 jobs twice.
Recovery Illinois now reports as of Q4, 2009 that VVSD has created 30 jobs as a result of Special Education Grants and 0.03 jobs created as a result of Special Education Preschool Grants. But I have no confidence in the state of Illinois' job "creation" numbers, knowing the numbers are based on guesstimates and especially since I know that VVSD is actually going to lay off administrators, teachers and special education aides.
This job "creation" chicanery is happening all across the country. Favored Democratic constituencies, which includes public education unions, have been pumped full of borrowed money to create the illusion of job creation. However, the unemployment rate, which will hover around 10% for the foreseeable future, does not lie.
