Feds chide Commonwealth on stimulus education funding

The US Department of Education is unhappy with Massachusetts and some other states for using federal stimulus money to supplant rather than supplement education funding. The article in Education Week can be found at this link.
The DOE memo to the states said that,

“Although this reduction may be allowable under the law, it may adversely impact the achievement of the education reforms of the [fiscal-stabilization] program,”

One possible consequence may be ...

... that further stimulus grants will not be provided.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has warned that substituting stimulus money for state education funding could endanger a state’s chances of getting a share of $4 billion in discretionary grants under the stimulus program’s Race to the Top Fund.

In fairness to the Governor and other states, the money was not prohibited from this use. The article quotes,

Andy Smarick, a visiting fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington think tank, said that nothing in the stimulus law, regulations, or guidance prevented states and districts from spending fiscal-stabilization money to preserve their education budgets.