[oddjob]

If I understand the scenario correctly, the government steered a huge slice of stimulus money ($100B) to education, and the Education Secretary has about a $5B personal account to spend as he wishes, all done without any planning or identified need for the money. Yikes.

I give full credit to President Obama if he is able to enact his education reform agenda and increase the accountability of teachers and schools. That’s probably where the best bang for the buck is e.g. linking teacher merit pay to student performance. In that regard, spending the $5B on teacher stipends for supporting robotics teams or other activities is probably going to have a very positive affect. But I’m glad I don’t have the power to spend $5B of other peoples money as I please, that’s outright crazy.