School Stimulus money misused

According to the Department of Education's inspector general report that some of the stimulus money is not being used as instructed. Some states are using the money to replace lost money that they've cut from their budget.

NPR says, The Department of Education released the stimulus funds to be used to boost funding for schools and colleges and to protect key programs and jobs. Arne Duncan, Education Secretary says, "We're really focused on making sure states are using the stimulus money well. But what we want to do is make sure people aren't playing games." However, it wasn't long before the Education Department began hearing that some states were using the stimulus money inappropriately. It specifically cited Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Thomas Murphy, spokesman for Connecticut's department of education says that "These funds came with the greatest flexibility to help states stabilize their education programs, and that's how Connecticut used those funds." Jon Shure of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities tells NPR that twenty-five states have cut funding for K-12 education and 34 states have cut higher-education funding. Shure says that the stimulus has covered no more than thirty percent of states' budget shortfalls. Duncan warns that if states use the stimulus money to help overcome cuts made to their education budgets, he may exclude them from billions of dollars that the administration is offering states for reforming their schools.