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September 12, 2005
U.S. Dept. of Education accused of being slow in aiding Katrina victims
Last Thursday, U.S. Rep. Dan Boren (D-Oklahoma) sent a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spelling claiming that the federal Education Department was slow in aiding states that are housing Katrina evacuees. Boren requested that Sec. Spelling release emergency money under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act.
A spokesperson for the Education Department replied that there was not enough money available to help in such a massive emergency.
[Story Source: Tulsa World newspaper, 09/09/05, Section A-9]
To the Dodo, Mr. Boren's complaint appears to be his attempt to bash the Bush Administration. Here is the reason why.
Title VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act pertains to homeless children, and this legislation was reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
Here are two excerpts from the U.S. Dept. of Education's non-regulatory guidance for the McKinney-Vento program:
The Department awards McKinney-Vento funds to States by formula. The amount that a State receives in a given year is based on the proportion of funds allocated nationally that it receives under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), for that year.
An SEA (State Educational Agency) must award funds not reserved for State-level activities to LEAs (Local Educational Agencies) on a competitive basis.
The McKinney-Vento Act requires that a state's education department receive federal funds according to a set formula. Then, school districts are required to compete for the funds granted to that state.
The Dodo has no doubt that the federal Education Department has already distributed the McKinney-Vento funds for the current federal fiscal year.
So where is the federal Education Department supposed to obtain the emergency money that Rep. Boren is requesting?
The U.S. House of Representatives is responsible for initiating spending bills. Perhaps Rep. Boren can write a spending bill that gives emergency money to the federal Education Department.
There may be slowness in educational aid, but that slowness may be caused by congressional inaction. Rep. Boren needs to learn that, whenever he points a finger at Education Sec. Margaret Spelling, three of his own fingers are pointing back at him.
Posted by Dodo David at September 12, 2005 04:19 PM
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Comments
And again, Dodo shows himself to be above the rest of the lifelikepundits crowd...
Rather than simply stonewall and propogate his own argument, he acknowledges that, in fact, his points could have flaws...
If only we were all so directly honest...
Posted by: tj at September 12, 2005 06:20 PM
oopsie - clicked on the wrong comment link, apparently -sorry...
Posted by: tj at September 12, 2005 06:26 PM
Meanwhile, I've read this Post, finally - do you have a link to the letter?
If Boren did this, he's as guilty of horrid partisanship as anyone else - should be shamed into resigning from the senate, if not at least voted out...
That's one of the most ridiculous incidents of grandstanding ever, if true...
And the verdict is in - and it's completely true, without equivocation.
Political partisan grandstanding at its absolute worst. Frickin moron tries to jump on the 'help the evacuees' bandwagon by creating an heightened sense of emergency.
Shameless and pathetic, Boren is...oh, but for a moment's valid voter registration in his district in Oklahoma.
Posted by: tj at September 13, 2005 09:44 PM