Education officials may assume that earmarking a grant for textbooks ensures that a district's textbook spending will rise by the full amount of the grant. But if the district had already planned to make the same purchases with local revenue, it can substitute the grant and redirect that revenue to noneducation uses; neither textbook purchases nor total education spending must increase. Thus, despite its formal designation, the grant may be _____ in practice.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
For a words-in-context question, identify the relationship established by the entire passage before evaluating the options. Here, distinguish the grant's formal label from its actual effect on the district's budget, and then select the word that most precisely describes that effect.
Hints
Follow the counterexample
Focus on what the district can do if it had already budgeted local revenue for the textbooks.
Notice the key distinction
The phrase “in practice” signals that the blank should describe the grant's actual budgetary effect, not merely its official designation.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the contrast
The grant is formally limited to textbooks, but the passage contrasts that designation with what happens to the district's overall budget.
Trace the budgetary effect
Because the district had already planned to purchase the textbooks, it can use the grant instead of local revenue and redirect the local revenue elsewhere. The grant therefore functions as a substitute for other money.
Choose the precise word
Fungible describes something that can be exchanged for or replaced by something equivalent. That meaning precisely fits the grant's practical effect.