Eight States Procrastinate as Stimulus Deadline Nears
The clock is ticking toward the July 1 deadline for states to submit their applications for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund—the $48.6 billion pie that's meant to prop up states' K-12 education budgets. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is scheduled to hold a conference call with media tomorrow to talk about this (and some higher ed stuff as well.)
As of today, the Education Department has approved 37 applications (including District of Columbia and Puerto Rico), with seven still pending. So which eight states are dragging their feet, using every last hour of their time?
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Missouri
• Montana
• Oklahoma
• Texas
• Vermont
• Wyoming
Comments
oklahoma needs to do this, because the county we live in just passed a TIF to save a developer who is putting in resort in this county from paying over 3 million in taxes that would have gone to the schools, and we are one of the poorest county in southern oklahoma
Posted by: lgarret | July 1, 2009 10:27 PM
Why has Texas been blessed with so many great governors? Rick Perry has one of the lowest approval ratings around to begin with, does not care about those who need help, and just recently voted against bills that would benefit millions of Texas children. Governors should not be allowed to have a say in this. I realize state legislatures can overturn their decisions, which begs another question, "Who is running the statehouse in Austin these days?"
Posted by: dhumpal | July 2, 2009 8:56 PM
On the other hand, by taking this money our state has now handed over that much more federal control over our public education--an area that constitutionally is the state's to govern and not the right of the federal govt.
Our federal government is very quickly and efficiently taking more and more of our rights away from us, and we seem to be absolutely blind to what is happening! In fact, we applaud it!!! My great-grandfather and my great-uncle, each a veteran of WWI or WWII respectively, fought and risked their lives for the freedoms we are so cavalierly 'selling' to federal control--I am ashamed that I am alive to witness such a time!
Posted by: Connie | July 7, 2009 8:17 AM
Why is it necessary to intimidate states into accepting money if they don't want or need it? Doesn't 20 billion in national debt mean anything? There are more creative ways to find money for education than handing over control to the Federal government. What are we teaching our children about fiscal responsibility and the sovereignty of local and state governments? This is not a one time stimulus, this package is designed to change forever the role of the federal government in local schools. More states should be resisting.
Posted by: Brad | July 9, 2009 2:28 PM