Stimulating the status quo

According to the Oklahoma Recovery & Reinvestment website, which aims to "ensure full transparency and accountability" with regard to the use of Oklahoma's so-called stimulus funds, $316.8 million of Oklahoma's $2.6 billion in "stimulus" money is going to education.

With proper respect, I would suggest that the government's "full transparency" could stand to be a little fuller. For as this chart prepared by OCPA research fellow Steve Anderson indicates, the amount going to education is not $316.8 million; rather, it is more than twice that amount. How so? It turns out that the feds have directed the bulk of the money in the "budget stabilization" category to be spent on common and higher education.