Kansas Watchdog is reporting that the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services has used stimulus money to give $500 to each of 10,847 families to “help cover costs for the upcoming school year.” There was no application process: “The government decided unilaterally who received these payments, and no legislative body in Kansas reviewed this program or authorized these payments.”

Watchdog asked for the names of the recipients, but SRS bureaucrats “cited both Kansas and Federal statutes for denying an open records request for the list of recipients to study.” I guess Watchdog’s inquiry can join “How many jobs has it created?” on the list of unanswered questions about this $5.4 million “stimulus” expenditure.