[RowdyFFC]

AND speaking of those repercussions, they fined us $444,000 and they cut our funding for NCLB...repercussions, get it?

[SUSSA]

OK, let me educate you on how money works. If the federal government gives a school district $100.00 to pay for lunches, the district doesn’t have to spend $100.00 it took from local taxpayers on that line item and can spend the $100.00 it forcibly took from local residents on something else in the budget.

You make the same argument that Planned Parenthood makes that they aren’t using federal money for abortions. However, like a school district, the money they get from the feds frees up money they get from elsewhere to be used to kill babies.

As for the $444,282.00 fine Texas paid, it wasn’t because they weren’t taking part in NCLB. It was because for two years, the state exceeded the federal cap on how many students with learning disabilities could be given an easier exam instead of the rigorous Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills and the TEA failed to justify the action within the time allotted. That’s a far cry from telling the feds they weren’t going to comply with NCLB.

The fine represented a fraction of the $1.1 billion in NCLB funds Texas got from the feds in 2004. It wasn’t a big deal.