Nevada Cashes the Check While Crying Poor

Absenteeism, Federal Funds, and a Shrinking Washington

Now, I don’t pretend to understand all the goings-on of this great American experiment, especially when it comes to matters of money and government—which is to say, fraud and folly—but it strikes me as downright peculiar that Nevada, a state with its boots firmly planted in the dusty soil of self-reliance–or so it says–is whistling Dixie to the bank with a sackful of federal coin as the very hand that handed it out is gettin’ sawed off at the wrist.

You see, the Nevada Department of Education just got itself a shiny new federal grant—one of those highfalutin’ projects with a name longer than a preacher’s sermon–the Stronger Connections Technical Assistance and Capacity Building program, which sounds like it came out of a sausage grinder full of bureaucracy and good intentions. The aim? Reduce chronic absenteeism in the schools by 15 to 20 percent over the next three years, which, if successful, would still leave a good many seats cold and empty at roll call.

But here’s the rub, friend. While Nevada schools’re happy to be getting training, mentorship, and “Check & Connect” schemes—where some poor soul has to check in on young truants and connect with them like a telegraph operator in a thunderstorm—the Department of Education over in Washington is undergoing a slimming more severe than a politician’s principles after election day. Staff cuts, program consolidations, cuts so close they’ll raise gooseflesh—and yet the money flows like the Truckee River in springtime.

So what gives?

Well, let me explain in the plainest way I can–just because the federal Department of Education is shrinking like a wool sweater in a washtub doesn’t mean the spigot’s shut—at least not yet. The grant Nevada received was already baked into the budget cake some time ago, back when Congress was still pretending to like each other long enough to pass things.

These programs, you see, have long tails. Like an old mule, they keep working long after common sense says they should be at pasture.

Besides, when Uncle Sam decides to pass around a few gold pieces for something as noble as helping kids show up to school—well, no politician wants to be the fellow who says, “Let them stay home!” even if his other hand is busy dismantling the very agency that sent the check.

And I’ll wager another thing–Nevada, like most states, is glad to take the money while muttering about federal overreach, the way a hungry man gripes about the soup being too hot as he slurps it down. The state gets to wear two hats—one of the poor-country cousins, pleading for help, and the other of the proud pioneer, suspicious of Washington’s meddling.

So, while the boys and girls at the top trim the tree of federal education, the roots are still feeding the ground in places like Nevada—where the statehouse says times are hard, but not so hard they’ll say no to a few million in taxpayer generosity.

That, my friend, is the American way—complain about the barn while milking the cow.