Among “public money” stories over the past several days have been these:

• A bit less than $5,000 spent by the City of Vicksburg to automate and provide instant weather information on the Internet.

• A bit more than $21,000 awarded to the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation by the Mississippi Arts Commission to support operational programming, such as the River Kids sessions that provide supplemental opportunities for young people to learn about their town, its people and history.

• A whopping $1.5 million — the largest grant to any school district anywhere this year — from the federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative for the Vicksburg Warren School District to, well, do something to make public schools safer and healthier.

Not to be obstreperous about it, but have we missed something? Is there any basis upon which to say public schools here are less safe or less healthy than schools elsewhere — or at least so much so that they merit such a large infusion of tax money?

Other Mississippi school districts have received these allocations in the past.

The Post’s brief research revealed it has been spent on things such as creating “clubs to raise awareness about making smart decisions” to adding a school safety officer to paying people to exhort students to stay in school and to avoid tobacco, drugs and pregnancy. You know, all that stuff parents, preachers and teachers do (or formerly did) as parents, preachers and teachers.

No word yet on how the Vicksburg Warren School District will fit the enhancement money into its $70 million budget. It’s a pretty sure bet that it will be spent on something — maybe something very worthwhile.

The purpose here is merely to note that there’s a scale, of sorts, in effect. For very few local dollars, taxpayers are getting something tangible and practical — an improved weather reporting system. For a few more state dollars, there’s also a very direct benefit to a proven program for young people. And yet for a dump truck load of federal dollars, things are not as empirical. Not that every benefit can be quantified, this allocation seems a bit more “in the vapors” than others.

The federal spending machine continues to amaze. Ten years ago, Congress created the initiative with the altruistic notion of “helping.” Since then, grants have totaled more than $2.1 billion.

Now local schools are getting a check. And how it will result in safer or healthier schools … well, that remains to be seen.