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North Carolina will receive $298 million from the federal government to help hold on to teacher jobs this school year.

The money is part of a $10 billion education fund passed by Congress in August.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made the announcement Monday, saying the state was one of the first to submit its application for a piece of the $10 billion pie. "These education dollars will help North Carolina keep thousands of teachers in the classroom working with our students this school year," Duncan said in a statement.
 
The fund will support education jobs in the 2010-11 school year. It will be distributed to states through a population-based formula.

The $10 billion fund is in addition to the federal stimulus money and the federal Race to the Top competitive grant program. So far, the U.S. government has supported 300,000 education jobs through the stimulus funds, but the money is running out.

In a statement, Gov. Bev Perdue said “this money will help us keep teachers in the classroom, which is crucial as we move forward with our Career and College – Ready, Set, Go! agenda." The governor was referring to her initiative aimed at boosting student performance and preparing students for higher education and careers.

Gov. Bev Perdue is a blogging, Flickr-ing, social networking kind of governor. But in an area where she has touted transparancy, an outside group found opaqueness.

The state Web site that gives information on how federal stimulus money is being spent ranked 32nd in the nation, according to Good Jobs First, a Washington D.C. nonprofit.

The organization looked at how well the state sites convey information about spending categories, spending in different parts of the state, stimulus project details and jobs produced or saved.

The North Carolina site gives basic details on where the money is going, available on spreadsheets. But it is no Maryland, which the Washington group ranked #1.

The Maryland stimulus site includes maps and detailed information on how the money is used.