A smear is something that is false or just a half-truth. Explain why you believe it is a smear.
Let’s just say I investigated this when I ran a political blog. You can take my word for it or not.
In summary:
Pennsylvania makes courseware available to homeschoolers who want to go the virtual school route. Many states do this including OH. This is not a giveaway considering how much PA would have to pay to educate those kids in the normal (union) way.
It is definitely arguable that Santorum violated the spirit if not the definition of PA residency laws to take advantage of the program.
But the $100k number is also highly inflated. All in all, the Santorums by homeschooling have lessened the burden on PA taxpayers, like the rest of us homeschoolers.
Liberals and other Santorum-haters used the $100k line to smear him and were not interested in understanding the facts of homeschoolers, virtual schools and other things that would provide useful context to the story.
And now you are using the same tactics which Dailykos used vs. Santorum in 2006 in exactly the same way. Congratulations.