I never paid much attention to the website www.Recovery.gov I always figured it was like that old Homeland Security website that told people to seal their windows and doors with duct tape. Never appealed to me.
But today I got to thinking, how much Stimulus money made its way to my little town? I live in a VERY VERY "Red" part of California. To give you an example, last year as I was standing in line to renew my drivers license, a fairly large group of people behind me were having a casual conversation about how this country went to hell when we passed the Civil Rights Act!
It's an incredibly Conservative place. In fact it is the new 8th Congressional District in which there will be no Democrat running in the General Election. The new Open Primary Rules resulted in a GOP vs. GOP Race. So yeah it's RED! People here believe the Stimulus was a waste. They say it didn't do any good, they never saw any results. It was a fraud and joke. So I was curious. I went to Recovery.gov and typed in my towns Zip Code (92308 btw) and just searched the word "School"
Follow me below the squiggly for the results.
Here are the numbers..
Apple Valley High School: $8,200,737
Hesperia School District: $11,421,209
Victor Valley High School: $7,099,257
San Bernardino County School District: $19,515,943
There are other smaller schools and education centers in the area that got smaller amounts, but even just these major institutions the total for my Tri-City Area is $26,721,203 dollars. That's almost $27 Million dollars we wouldn't have seen otherwise.
The grand total education stimulus when you include the county district is $46,237,146 dollars.
And this is just education funds including money to educate homeless teens, something only a heartless demon would object too. This does not include stimulus for construction projects, bailing out local Governments, or propping up crumbling programs. Nor does it include the neighborhood stabilization programs that have been reinvigorating communities.
But forget all that other stuff for a moment, our schools are horribly underfunded. Parents, charity groups and churches regularly have to donate basic school supplies. Now look at that massive amount of money our obscure little town that will no doubt vote 80% for Mitt Romney got out of the Stimulus. Imagine how many other schools across this nation got similar funds. Look at the conditions of our public schools, even with that money and try to justify denying these schools that money.
Sure it didn't completely solve the problem, but think about the tremendous good those funds did, and imagine how much worse off school children would be without it. Then tell me again with a straight face the Stimulus was a mistake.
I love this Recovery.gov it is a great public service. You should try out your own zip code, and post your areas benefits on your social network of choice. It's interesting and kind of eye opening. Give it a whirl I would be interested to hear what crazy amounts of money were sent to your part of the nation.