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AZ Misappropriates Education Stimulus Money?
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Arizona qualifies for over $830 million in education cash under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. However, the state doesn’t have the $317 million it is due to pay schools Wednesday. The state has had to borrow $130.9 million to make that payment. But WHY hasn’t the state received any of the stimulus money promised to education? Arizona Has To Borrow $131 Million
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According to Education Week, turns out there was a Fraud & Accountability Alert built into obtaining the money. When the feds were notified, they asked AZ officials what they were spending the money on…and didn’t like that it was going to be used to plug general budget holes? Ed Dept to AZ on Stimulus: Not So Fast.
Resources:
Funding mix-up on stimulus aid creates $250M windfall for schools (Howard Fischer), AZ Daily Star, July 17, 2009
States warned against not using stimulus to fund education (Libby Quaid), Dallas News, July 19, 2009
Gov’s office: Held-up stimulus back on track (Matthew Benson), Arizona Republic, July 16, 2009
U.S. stalling funds for state, Martin says (Matthew Benson), Arizona Republic, July 16, 2009
Stimulus rules cause stir in state (Howard Fischer), Sierra Vista Herald, July 16, 2009
Arizona’s access to stimulus money for higher ed in danger (Shanin Bergan), Arizona Daily Wildcat, sourced via Washington Week’s ‘Student Voices’, July 10, 2009
More Recent Updates on the Federal Stimulus / Arizona Education:
Initiative would provide more funds to community colleges (Alex Bloom), Arizona Republic, July 17, 2009
Governor Jan Brewer’s Office of Economic Recovery (tracking site for federal funds)
Arizona gets $681 million in stimulus funding for education (Angela Gonzales), Phoenix Business Journal, July 10, 2009
Top Ten Questions About Arizona Higher Education – an excellent short synopsis explaining how the federal stimulus monies might impact Arizona’s universities, as well as a summary of the FY09-10 budget issues.
Tags: Arizona budget, arizona education, Arizona Legislature, Arizona schools, Contact Governor Brewer, Jan Brewer, k-12 education funding, senator John McCain, senator Jon Kyl
Thought you all would appreciate that word of the Accidental Gov’s behavior has made it all the way to the MSM:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/31952386#31952386
It’s very discouraging that our state seems to be imploding. I have absolutely no faith that anyone from the newest house representative to the leader of the state senate–all the way up to Kyl and McCain (thanks for instigating all this!), know what the h3ll they are doing anymore! Honestly, WTF?!?! This is more than an ideological crises going on here, this is about people who live here who are not being prioritized. We need to clean house. We need to gain some respect back nationally…this is the second (or more?) time this week that Arizona has been in the national news in a disparaging and sarcastic manner. We need to not give them more fodder for the news clips by starting over in the legislature and voting them all out.