Education jobs saved by stimulus overstated
Nevada has overestimated the number of higher education jobs so far "retained" with federal stimulus aid, according to a state budget official. The revised count is about 1,400, a steep drop from the nearly 2,100 that state and federal officials have touted for weeks.
Victor Redding, budget director of the Nevada System of Higher Education, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the inflated figure, which is still posted on a state Web site that tracks jobs created or retained with Recovery Act funds, resulted from a miscount by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The average annual pay of employees at state colleges and universities was used to estimate job retention in the higher education system. But UNLV included part-time employees' pay in its calculation, said Redding, who is expected to share more details about the situation at a Board of Regents meeting at UNLV today.
UNLV spokesman Dave Tonelli said the university made a good-faith effort to submit accurate numbers.
"We did our best to follow the instructions, but the instructions weren't incredibly precise," he said.
Initial efforts to compute employment gains attributable to stimulus funding -- especially in K-12 and higher education -- have sparked considerable debate, with even those who compiled the data cautioning the numbers should not be interpreted too literally.
Still, Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and others have specifically cited the preservation of Nevada education jobs as evidence the stimulus is working.
The broad estimates of education jobs saved with stimulus funds have centered on how possible state cuts might have led to job reductions.
"What would the state have done next had these funds not come about?" Redding asked. "The truth of the matter is that's a question that goes well beyond the scope of our (jobs) report."
Through September, half of all the jobs in the country reported as created or preserved with Recovery Act money were in education, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Each state has had to decide independently the exact definition of a saved job.
In Nevada, the higher education system arrived at its figure by dividing the average salary and benefits of most employees into the $92.4 million the system has gotten in fiscal-stabilization money. The same formula was used to conclude that stimulus funding has saved more than 2,000 jobs in the state's K-12 system.
Nevada education officials said Gov. Jim Gibbons' budget office instructed them to use this method. State Budget Director Andrew Clinger didn't return phone calls seeking comment.
The mistake in the higher education numbers occurred because the state used $45,000 as the average annual pay of employees in the system. After UNLV's data was adjusted, the average salary figure rose to about $65,000, Redding said.
The revised estimate of the Recovery Act's impact on higher education reduces the overall number of jobs created or retained in the state by 11 percent to about 5,000, according to federal government data.
Contact reporter Alan Maimon at amaimon@review journal.com or 702-383-0404.
