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Sunday August 22, 2010 | 11:06 AM

School administrators across Maine learned Friday that they'll be receiving their share of $39 million in federal funds through the state funding formula through which most of their other state aid flows.

Gov. John Baldacci on Friday submitted the application needed to claim Maine's $39 million take from the $10 billion education jobs package that cleared Congress earlier this month. Federal officials say they're aiming to have the funds on their way to the states within two weeks of receiving the required paperwork.

In their applications to the feds, governors looking to claim the education jobs money had to indicate how they would distribute the money to local school districts, choosing either the standard funding formula or the formula for distributing federal Title I funds.

Noting that most state aid cuts flow to Maine schools via the standard funding formula, Baldacci opted for the same formula to distribute this one-time federal infusion.

Now, school superintendents and finance managers know how they'll be receiving the funds, but they have yet to find out exactly how much is headed their way.

Revealing that is the job of the Maine Department of Education, which will likely be out with another funding spreadsheet in short order.

Without knowing the exact amounts in store for them, one school superintendent told me districts can at least make good guesses about how much to expect. In March, districts received an unexpected $25 million restoration to their state aid packages that flowed through the standard funding formula.

With $39 million headed to schools this time, schools can estimate their take by simply doing the proportional math. Take the amount of their individual March restoration and multiply by about 1.56.

Of course, that starts only to answer one question.

The other is, when will schools spend their new federal money?

While the cheerleaders for the education jobs money say the funds are meant to be spent to rehire laid-off staff members for the 2010-11 school year, a provision in the federal law allows school districts until Sept. 30, 2012, to spend the money.

That means schools can hold off altogether on spending it this school year and use it in a year to make the infamous cliff a little less steep.

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