States Stung by Criticism on Use of Federal Aid
Several states are defending their use of federal stimulus money after receiving an official scolding from the U.S. Department of Education’s internal watchdog.
The memorandum
issued by the department’s inspector general points to Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania as examples of how states are undermining the school improvement aims of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in their use of fiscal-stabilization funds to avert or minimize cuts to their education budgets.
The Sept. 30 memo focuses on the “maintenance of effort” provision of the economic-stimulus law, which makes states promise, as a condition of getting stimulus money, that they will preserve education funding at least at 2006 levels. While that provision was designed to give states budgeting flexibility, the inspector general’s memo said it enabled them to reduce their own support for education, and use the federal money to plug budget holes instead of driving...
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