COLUMBUS, Ohio — The state's shift of $260 million in federal welfare money to other parts of the budget has upset social services officials who say the money paid for vital programs.

        Athens County used $9 million of the money for job-training programs, health and dental care, services for the elderly, expanded early childhood education and help for the area's cash-strapped schools.

        “We were actually, finally, making a difference,” Ted Bayat, superintendent of the Federal Hocking Local School District, told The Columbus Dispatch for a story Sunday. “Every program put together here was put together to help children and their families.”

        His schools netted roughly $350,000, used for hiring a nurse, a guidance counselor and social workers, underwriting field trips and paying school fees for poor families.

        Last week, with no field trips on the horizon and embarrassed families trying to ignore the fees they cannot pay, school secretaries were serving as nurses.

        “I don't care what Mr. (Larry) Householder or Mr. (Richard) Finan or Mr. (Bob) Taft says,” Mr. Bayat said, referring respectively to the House speaker, Senate president and governor. “They don't understand what's going on in our schools.”

        Many human-services advocates say Ohio is shortchanging its social programming because of schools. Faced with a state Supreme Court mandate to increase education funding, the Legislature has vowed to do it without raising taxes.

        “They made a decision that it was more important to bail themselves out of the school-funding mess than to continue helping these families, and they pretty much stifled the debate,” said Jack Frech, Athens County's welfare director.

        His county and several others have signaled their intent to join Cuyahoga County in a lawsuit filed against the state last week that charges that millions of federal welfare dollars were illegally diverted to balance the state budget.

        Cuyahoga County officials said the state's most populous county received roughly $51 million this year — $37 million less than last year — forcing elimination of several programs for poor families in the Cleveland area.

        State officials said much of the money Cuyahoga and other counties lost was distributed through a $300 million program never ntended to run past June.

        “That was one-time funding,” said Jon Allen, a spokesman for the state Department of Job and Family Services.

        Mr. Allen also defended the state's decision to shift federal welfare money to pay for other budget items, such as Head Start, that traditionally have been paid by the state. About $176 million is going to Head Start, a preschool program for poor children.

Liberty, security at odds in U.S.
Muslims return home after being questioned
Shootings change officers' lives
Air National Guard: 'We're ready now'
WWII vets see parallels
HOWARD: Some Good News
$7.2M proposal before UC board
Closing arguments set to begin in Roach trial
E. Price Hill fights housing project
Fall Fest brings music, fireworks to river town
Fourth-graders learn a lesson from tragedy
Interstate 471 ramps close Tues.
Loans, grants aid flood victims
Ohio 32-Eight Mile intersection a hazard
Oktoberfest attracts big crowd
Tristate A.M. Report
Mysteries uncovered in prehistoric graves
Rural roots, fresh bounty
Militia groups express fear about rights
Welfare stirs debate
Apartment fire sends students fleeing
Dragonflies taking off as mosquitoes rise
Election left hard feelings
Sailor killed at Pentagon buried in Ky.
Training for terror acts is routine