But I thought Republicans say federal money never produced a single byte of data

by David Safier

Look who's happy about getting 5 million dollars of that nasty Obama money to improve the AZ Dept of Ed data systems. John Huppenthal.

Arizona is one of two dozen states receiving federal grants to improve their data systems. The $5 million grant to Arizona, along with up to $6.6 million in state money for fiscal 2013, will set the stage for a larger and more powerful data system.

I'm sure Hupp sent a thank you note to the White House saying how valuable the federal assistance will be in getting the ADE data system up to speed. This is one time he's not talking about shrinking the size of government.

Funny story. As soon as Hupp became Ed Supe, he started pitching the need for money to update the ADE data systems technology, which is old and inefficient. When he was in the lege, though, he voted down money for the upgrade. He commented on the error of his ways, saying he wished someone had explained to him how essential the upgrade was back then. He needs an old English teacher, like me, to explain the irony here. His "cut government spending" dogma made him reject new expenditures everywhere, and even cut back on existing expenditures. When he became Ed Supe, though, the scales fell from his eyes in this ONE SPECIAL CASE, and he discovered more money would actually do some good — in this ONE SPECIAL CASE. In other cases, though, the scales covering his eyes are still very much in place, and the "cut government spending" dogma still applies.