Viewpoint: Federal government should cut Michigan some slack on college funds - The Muskegon Chronicle

Federal officials say Michigan should have spent at least $34 million in general fund revenues on financial aid for students who attend private colleges in 2010. Instead, as Flanagan explains, the state spent $39 million on those scholarships. However, with general fund revenues down a staggering 18 percent, the state used a federal block grant for that purpose, not the over-stretched general fund. It is unlikely that either the lawmakers who approved that budget or the students who got those scholarships paused for a single minute to fret about which checking account the state used to pay the bill. But so far, that’s all federal officials seem to care about, ignoring how many students Michigan managed to help in the most difficult budget year in recent state history.