Horne straightens out AG Mayes from taking credit for release of federal funds

Issues statement

PHOENIX – State schools chief Tom Horne issued the following statement rebutting an effort by Attorney General Kris Mayes to take credit for the end of a federal review of grant funding.

Supt. Horne said:

“Attorney General Mayes issued a statement claiming that the federal government released school funds because of a lawsuit that she joined against the federal government. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The federal government never canceled those funds. It delayed paying them in order to do a study to make sure they were being used properly for education purposes.

On July 25, I issued a press release pointing out that when the pause occurred a lot of people panicked thinking the money would go away entirely.  I said at the time that this was merely a positive review.

The federal government released the funds upon conclusion of the study, as had been foreseen, and not because a court case was filed. One thing we know for sure about the Trump administration is that if they wanted to cancel the funds, the response to the lawsuit would’ve been to appeal it up the chain to the United States Supreme Court, if necessary. They do not just throw in the towel when sued, if anything, a lawsuit like that gets their back up.

In this case they never intended to cancel the funds but only to have a pause for a study. I clarified this for the public and that is exactly what happened.

Also, the funds were released on July 25. The Attorney General‘s release today is behind the times.”