The following exchange seems to shed light on the real reason (besides taking orders from their corporate masters) Republican governors, who typically shortchange their citizens while cowtowing to their rich campaign funders, are refusing federal stimulus money. It's not about paying down debt or being fiscally responsible, just see the federal government under George Bush showering these same people with money. These repub governors don't want America to see that red states, whose Republican governors and legislators short-change education, are the worst performers: to get the stimulus money, they have to provide embarassing education statistics. The very public comparison to blue states will be another slap in their faces and they know this.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told the nation’s governors on Wednesday that in exchange for billions of dollars in federal education aid provided under the economic stimulus law, he wants new information about the performance of their public schools, much of which could be embarrassing.
Mark Sanford, the Republican standard-bearer right now for the POTUS 2012 race, was left speechless and did NOT contest Secretary Duncan's assessment of South Carolina, see the paragraphs after the following at this link.
Speaking with reporters in a conference call, Mr. Duncan inadvertently demonstrated how the information collected from states could be used to try to shame educators and public officials into making changes.
Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a Republican who advocates issuing taxpayer-financed vouchers that parents can use to send their children to private schools, has told the Obama administration that he would not accept some $577 million in educational stimulus money for South Carolina unless he could use it to pay down state debt.
Mr. Duncan unleashed a barrage of dismal statistics about the South Carolina schools, noting that only 15 percent of the state’s black students are proficient in math and that the state has one of the nation’s worst high school graduation rates.
There are many reasons that red states, the ones left anyway, short-change education, not least because such citizens are more susceptible to the Republican message of hate.