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Dual Aims in Stimulus Stir Tension

The education aid of up to $100 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has always had two purposes: to help cash-strapped states weather the current economic storm, and to prod states to pursue broad-based improvements to education.

Now that the federal economic-stimulus money is beginning to flow to states, it’s clear that the still-bleak economy is heightening the tension between those goals.

In a number of states, including several with ambitious school reform plans on the shelf, massive deficits threaten to swallow a hefty portion of the stimulus aid, leaving less money...