AUGUSTA -- Economic stimulus money will restore the $27 million Maine school districts forfeited as part of Gov. John Baldacci's fall 2008 spending curtailment order, Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said Wednesday.

The $787 billion federal funds infusion, which President Barack Obama signed into law Tuesday, will also provide millions of dollars to help Maine districts balance their budgets during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years.

Gendron said she does not yet have specific numbers, but the commissioner estimated Maine would receive approximately $160 million to be spent by local school districts by mid-2011.

"I think in many instances, we'll be able to reverse pink slips, layoffs that are happening in many districts," she said.

The $160 million, however, would fall short of filling the gap expected between projected revenues and pre-curtailment spending levels, Gendron told members of the Legislature's Education Committee. The state would need $250 million to fill that hole, she said.

The stimulus money will also fall short of allowing the state to meet a 2005 goal of providing 55 percent of education funding.

"There aren't enough funds here to do that," Gendron said. "We have to apportion, moving towards that goal."

Matthew Stone