Your tax dollars at work

The New York Post reports on how NY State education bureaucrats want to spend your money:

The state failed to get a penny in education funds doled out by Washington this week after clueless bureaucrats were dopey enough to admit to the feds they would have blown more than $200,000 on expensive furniture for their offices.

They apparently thought designer chairs, desks and bookcases for themselves were more important than training teachers or turning around failing schools.

Their proposed spending included  bookcases that cost $3,000 each.  When confronted on the issue, the education bureaucrats said it wasn't their fault the furniture cost so much.  They were just following NY State policy to mandates overpaying for furniture:

State education officials said they were hampered by Albany's purchasing rules, which forced them to order supplies from a vendor named CorCraft -- whose goods are made by New York prison inmates.

"It's not a state Education Department decision -- it's a state procurement issue," said Deputy Commissioner John King Jr. "We are mandated to purchase from CorCraft,"

But the state did not have to use a federal grant for office furniture or equipment. It could have spent the money on things like more social workers or longer class hours.

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