Even before it passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, the $26 billion state aid bill drew a volley of fire from top Republicans on Capitol Hill who claimed it was another bailout currying Democratic Party favor with teacher unions.

Republican leaders back home in Texas are enraged for a quite different reason: A provision in the legislation offers about $830 million to fund between 13,400 and 14,500 teaching jobs in Texas — but if, and only if, Gov. Rick Perry provides assurance that the money won’t be diverted to other expenses.

This oddly Texas-specific provision was crafted by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, in the wake of last year’s funding shell game down in Austin. In 2009, some $3.2 billion in education funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was dispatched to Texas to supplement state funds already set aside for education. Through some accounting maneuvers, state leaders instead used the federal money for other purposes, including plugging a budget shortfall. This left some Texas educators fuming.

This time, Doggett added an amendment demanding that Perry leave state education funds at current spending levels through 2013 so extra money for education allotted by the federal government can enhance education across Texas. Various education groups back this.

This strikes us as much political meddling. It puts our governor in violation of the Texas Constitution, which prohibits him from committing the Legislature to future spending levels. The Constitution mandates no appropriation of money be made for a longer term than two years. Besides, do we really want Washington telling us how to conduct and plan our state budget?

Former state District Judge Scott McCown, executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities and an expert on school finance, says enough latitude exists in the law to allow the governor to make a good-faith prognosis on the matter, which ought to be somewhat acceptable to Perry, who has signed such assurances before. Yet it’s unfortunate that the debate over school finance has reached this low level of political gamesmanship.

Groups ranging from the Texas State Teachers Association to the fairly conservative Texas Association of School Boards are right to be rankled at how the Legislature shortchanged education last year. With extensive membership rolls, such educator groups have enough muscle to make their sentiments known at the ballot box if our leaders in Texas fail them again.

But we definitely don’t need Washington getting between Texans and the leaders they dispatch to Austin. In the end, that’s our business and not the federal government’s.

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