From: Joshua Trevino
Date: Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 9:30 AM
Subject: Re: hello from PolitiFact
To: Meghan Ashford-Grooms <mashford79@gmail.com>


Here you go:

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"Mrs. Collins' February 16, 2011 NYT article, Mrs. Bush, Abstinence and Texas, makes a number of disputable claims, the most notable of which is that 'Perry used $3.2 billion in stimulus dollars for schools to plug other holes in his budget.'"

The accusation that Gov. Perry oversaw the misuse or misappropriation of federal education stimulus dollars is incorrect. Texas state lawmakers used the $3.2 billion in state stabilization funds to support ongoing commitments in education which might not have otherwise have been fully funded. Simply because no new initiatives were funded is not grounds for claiming money was shifted from education to other purposes.

Furthermore, singling out the way in which the Texas Legislature chose to appropriate the federal education stimulus funds is an unfair criticism. The Campaign for Educational Equity reviewed 20 states’ use of education stimulus dollars and concluded "every state in essence 'backfilled budget holes’” with them.

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