Be careful about lusting for federal education grant money, you might get it

Whether in public or behind closed doors, all the dithering about how to go after those “Race to the Top” millions in federal education grants may be futile at best or counterproductive at worst.

The governor, with the advice of the attorney general’s office in his pocket, has thumbed his nose at the ACLU, which rightly insisted his blue ribbon education task force should meet publicly. But that may really be academic, so to speak.

For the first round of $5 billion in federal tax dollars from Obama’s stash, 40 states applied, 16 were finalists and only two were given money. Delaware got $102 million, while Tennessee was handed $500 million. Both had strong backing from their teacher unions.

Nevada is salivating over the possibility of nabbing $175 million or so of that booty.

That is the chief reason Gov. Jim Gibbons created his 28-member task force, to come up with a plan for applying for that money.

The reasoning is that the money would help stanch the hemorrhaging of state school funds. Clark County alone is facing a shortfall of $123 million this school year, a $78 million cut in state funding and a $45 million decline in property tax revenues. The district is considering laying off 540 teachers, since the teacher union won’t give salary concessions. (See above: strong backing from their teacher unions.)

The way I read it, not a single dollar of those “Race for the Top” funds could be used to rehire a single one of those teachers. No, the money has to go to innovative new programs to improve education.

That’s like investing in Olympic-style swimwear for those who are drowning.

And once the federal grant money is spent, the new programs and their bureaucracies would have to be paid for by the laid off, foreclosed on taxpayers of the state of Nevada. That might well be a $500 million commitment over the next decade.

Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.