A colleague told me, “School districts don’t know what to do exactly…Texas will, like Pennsylvania, run afoul of federal expectations for use of stimulus funding. Districts are having to prepare 2 budgets in anticipation of what will happen.”

This perspective is supported by a new article in the Austin American-Statesman which shares:

…as more information has trickled out of the U.S. Department of Education in recent weeks, it appears that Texas might also have some notable strikes against it:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan warned that states could harm their chances in the grant competition by using stimulus money to “backfill budget holes” while protecting state dollars.

Texas left untouched $9.1 billion in its rainy day fund while using $3.2 billion in stimulus money to pay for textbooks and increase school funding. State officials argue that the use of money was in compliance with the law and say there was a lack of federal guidance on spending the money.
Source: How Will Texas Compete in the Race to the Top

Subscribe to Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org

Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure