Sheboygan, Again

Belling has raised an interesting question: should the Sheboygan Board of Education members be prosecuted for mis-allocating Federal funds and be put in, say, Sandstone for about 5- to- 10?

According to Mark's story, the Board of Ed up there won passage of a $32MM referendum for repairs and upgrades on their high-school buildings. However, when all the work was done, $1MM remained un-spent.

So the Board of Ed authorized building $1MM's worth of empty space--for which the schools have no use at this time, nor in the foreseeable future.

Part of the rationale for spending the money rather than returning it to the taxpayers was (according to a former School Board President) that only part of the extra $1MM would go back to Sheboygan property-tax payers--the rest would have to be returned to the Federal Government.

Apparently it never occurred to these Community Leaders that spending Federal money not specifically authorized for the purpose might be a crime.

Let's assume that the facts are correct and that the expenditure IS a crime. Should the Board members (and let's toss in the Superintendent, too) go to Federal Prison?