The federal package requires that funding go no lower than the 2005/2006 level.  States need to apply for a waiver to receive stimulus funding.

Florida had to apply for the waiver because lawmakers have cut education funding to below 2005/2006 levels.   In fact, education spending in Florida has been dropping since 2006.   Current funding is below 2004-2005 levels.

Florida’s Department of Education didn’t bother to apply for the waiver until this week.   The state’s excuse last week was that the details of the waiver application weren’t detailed enough.  The Federal government basically told the Florida DOE to get off its butt and fill out the detailed application already.

In order to get the waiver, the percentage of state money earmarked for education must remain at the level it was at last year.   I can’t tell you the exact percentage of state money that was earmarked for education, but I doubt it is the same percentage as last year.

For one thing, Florida cut the amount of money set aside for education from last year to this year.  Then they cut it again in January of this year.  Even their plan to increase funding by $28 per student (using stimulus money) won’t get the state to the level it was at this past August.

The $28 increase is to the levels the state left the schools at when they cut funding in January 2009.   That is still below the levels schools were given in August of this school year.

According to one Central FL school finance officer, even if Florida gets the waiver, the funding will only keep “. . .a low number flat.”

Technorati Tags: federal education stimulus money

I was frazzled and frustrated by the time I headed home.  I had also spent more than I planned, mostly so I could finish and get away from the crowds.

I vowed never to go out shopping on Black Friday again.  So far I’ve kept that vow.

Today I’m participating in Buy Nothing Day.

Now I haven’t been perfect in my observance of Buy Nothing Day.  I broke a nail (my one girly trait) and had to get it fixed today.  I also bought lunch at a fast food place because I forgot I was only going to pay for fixing my nails.  For the rest of the day, however, I will buy noting.

Why don’t you join me?

Technorati Tags: Buy Nothing Day

I saw this cartoon and felt that it told the tale very well.

Technorati Tags: budget cuts, schools

Technorati Tags: stimulus bill

Like all “wars” the GOP party has declared in the last year (remember the “war on poverty” this one ended as soon as the spending bills hit the floor.

40 attempts made this year to rid spending bills of special-interest “earmarks” were blocked by the same people who claimed to see how bad they were for the budget. Fiscal conservatives tried to keep the battle going, but it’s hard to do when your party has been taken over by big government neo-cons.

Three GOP House of Representative leaders, Dennis Hastert, John Boehner, and Roy Blunt, have not voted against any projects that the fiscal conservatives tried to challenge. Hastert supported a $2.5 million project for the Illinois Technology Transition Center which was easily approved.

House leaders continue to claim that they are getting rid of the pork, yet they supported such projects as $500,000 to renovate a Banning, California municipal swimming pool, $1 million to Pennsylvania for a locomotive demonstration, $180,000 for tomato production in Ohio, and $1.4 million for Connecticut’s Mystic Aquarium.

Representative Jeff Flake , (R- Arizona) has been voting against the earmarks and says this of his party

It’s tough to take seriously that kind of talk when we see these votes. I’m amazed that people are willing to go on record supporting some of these earmarks. It just shows how addicted we are to this sort of spending.

Flake intends to attempt to bring this problem out in the open when a bill covering labor, healthcare, and human-services programs that is filled with special-interests’ earmarks comes to the House floor later this month. He plans to force a vote on all of the 1,000 plus earmarks unless the sponsors of the earmarks are publicly identified. If the sponsors are not identified Flake’s plan would take days and keep all other legislative business off the House floor.

Flake stated:

I’m guaranteeing a challenge on every earmark that doesn’t have a name. We have to change this system. This is a black eye for all of us.

“For all of us” is right. Only about 50 fiscal conservatives have been voting against these earmarks so far. That means that both parties are addicted to pork barrel spending.

Personally, I hope Flake follows through with his plan. If members of Congress had to fess up to the earmarks they’ve added to bills, maybe they would think a bit more about what they were doing.