MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WTAQ) - The White House says over 10,000 jobs were created or saved in Wisconsin by the federal stimulus program in the last three months of 2009. But the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says about 4,000 education jobs were counted twice, because they were created before last October and were counted again in the new report. And officials say those numbers will continue to be carried over in each subsequent report at least until the end of the school year. Chris Patton, who oversees the state government’s stimulus funding, says he has asked agencies and counties to determine how the money is used on an annualized basis – so the job creation numbers will be consistent and accurate.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Inspector General’s office is auditing state education departments to see how they’ve spent their stimulus money. They’ll audit Wisconsin’s $481 million in school funding on Monday. The money was given to schools last summer to help them avoid layoffs of teachers and other staff members. Assembly Republican Rich Zipperer of Pewaukee says the numbers cannot hide the fact that three-fourths of all stimulus jobs are in the government – while the private sector continues to languish with a national unemployment rate of 10 percent.
