President Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, put out a statement yesterday announcing his department has approved Rhode Island’s application to receive $32.9 million from the new Education Jobs Fund that Congress created in July August:

“There is a huge sense of urgency to get these funds out the door. I commend these states for being among the first to submit their applications and thank our team at the department for making funds available within a matter of days,” said Duncan. “These education dollars will help these states keep thousands of teachers in the classroom working with our students this school year.”

…except they won’t, as discussed ad nauseam here last week, because the General Assembly has no plans to reconvene and hand out the money, which in any event Gov. Carcieri wants to use to close the state’s deficit for this fiscal year. But Duncan’s statement demonstrates the state-federal disconnect over this money that I mentioned before, and how it causes confusion and uncertainty on the ground.

Update: It took so long for the Senate to pass that state aid bill I didn’t realize it was early August, not July, by the time it finally happened.