By Sam Dillon, The New York Times, February 16, 2009

WASHINGTON — The $100 billion in emergency aid for public schools and colleges in the economic stimulus bill could transform Arne Duncan into an exceptional figure in the history of federal education policy: a secretary of education loaded with money and the power to spend large chunks of it as he sees fit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/education/17educ.html?_r=1