On April 1, the Department of Education began accepting applications from states for pieces of the multibillion-dollar stimulus-fund pie. Today, the DOE sent out a notice urging states to apply because, in the last month and a half, only 20 have asked for money. "We have an urgent need to reform our schools and prevent teacher layoffs," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.
This is troubling, that states would be dragging their feet on asking for funds to buttress floundering education budgets. By my count, of the states that have applied, eleven have Republican governors, while nine have Democrats in charge. And, of those that haven't applied, eleven have Republican executives, while 19 have Democratic ones. We all know about those Republican governors with confused feelings about the stimulus money--that's you, Mark Sanford and Sarah Palin--but what's stalling the other hold-outs, particularly the Democratic ones?
--Seyward Darby