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The U.S. Department of Education’s Inspection Office currently employs more than 30 auditor executives and criminal forces to investigate how schools spend billions of dollars on the K-12 Pandemic Relief Fund. Has the only purpose.
They were busy.
“Business is booming,” Assistant Special Agent Kori Smith told district officials at a meeting on federal program oversight earlier this year.
He provided hypothetical examples of relief fund fraud and abuse aimed at recovering a pandemic. For example, I bought 700 Chromebooks when my district needed only 500, and stockpiled masks and other protective equipment in staff homes.
One actual investigation was handed over to the Ministry of Justice, where two students at the University of Louisiana Christian were charged, stole the identities of nine students, and used their names to target housing, tuition, and food. Earn $ 5,600 in emergency assistance. In a more quirky example unrelated to education, a Texas man pays employees about $ 25 million during the blockage and claims a program to help him buy a Bentley convertible using a portion of it. I am in prison to do so.
“We think it will get worse,” Smith said. “What was unexpected was a lot of money.”
Prosecution to deceive the government makes headlines. But they’re also spending an unprecedented $ 122 billion from the US rescue program, so they’re just one of the complex machines facing surveillance areas. The district has been increasingly monitored by federal and state officials as it moves from planning how to use the relief fund to signing contracts. However, some experts say that fear of auditing has had unintended consequences. The district is cautiously spending money to solve urgent problems.
It’s as compelling as asking, “Will this help our children?” The next question is, “What do auditors say about it?” “Sheara Krvaric, co-founder of the Federal Education Group, a law firm specializing in federal kindergarten to high school programs, said.
In short, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona frequently calls on districts to spend money as soon as possible to address student loss of learning and other needs.
For example, some districts have hesitated to spend relief funds on non-academic programs such as sports and physical education.
Also, despite severe staff shortages and layoffs, some districts use relief funds for retention bonuses and other incentives to retain teachers “because they suggest that the state is not allowed.” I chose not to. “This is despite the clear guidance from. [the Education Department] That is acceptable. “
These contradictions give district and state officials a special reason to be vigilant. “There is still a lot of confusion about what you can spend your money on,” she said.
On the other hand, the auditors at the independent Inspector General’s office do not necessarily delve into the subtleties. Last week, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt’s office said he couldn’t stop spending more than $ 650,000 on arcade games, Christmas trees, and 131 sets of cookware. The state has launched a $ 8 million grant program and has provided a $ 1,500 grant. For low-income families, we have signed up with Class Wallet, an online payment platform for educators to run the program.
Auditors stated that the purchase did not meet the criteria for “emergency education services” and asked the state to return the funds spent on “unauthorized” items. In response, the state blamed the Class Wallet for “defects” and said that surveillance had improved.
“Moving target”
A year ago, parents, teachers, and community members were invited to advise the district on how to spend a significant federal storm. However, as auditors delve into the details, many parents accuse the district of hiding money and continue to seek more tutors and other opportunities for children to catch up.
Keri Rodrigues, chairman of the National Parents Union, claims that many parents have never seen these funds benefit their children. She meets with Cardona or his staff every two weeks, where relief fund use occurs frequently.
“He wants the district to act urgently,” she said. “
By law, districts cannot hold money. They must mandate it by the end of September 2024. The department says it will consider some extensions, but their approval is not guaranteed.
At the same time, the rules that require districts that receive at least $ 750,000 in federal funding to be audited are changing rapidly.
“I’m talking about a complete reversal. It’s a literally moving goal,” said Bonnie Graham, a partner at Brustein & Manasevit, a law firm specializing in federal education policy. “The school district is in a difficult situation. We cannot make mistakes.”
In 2020, the Biden administration’s Office of Management and Budget stated that the district did not need to track the time of employees assigned to emergency relief for elementary and junior high schools known as ESSER. The 2021 and 2022 versions of the documentation state that they are completely opposite.
Districts are also allowed to use relief funds to repay the money spent at the start of the pandemic, but their documents often do not go back much, said the Pennsylvania accounting firms conducting district audits. Manager Kathy Harlow said.
A former director of the Tyrone Area School District, halfway between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, she sympathizes with the school district.
“Our company leans towards generosity,” she said. “We make the district accountable, but we understand that it is changing rapidly as the landscape passes by.”
“New area”
Audits may not give you the big picture.
The Inspector General’s Office also considered how Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education could use relief funds to connect more students to the Internet.
Due to a clerical error, the state did not reach all eligible districts, the audit said. What it did not show was that the authorities used ESSER funds to cover the rest.
“We had to reconcile with that,” said Chris Neill, Deputy Director of the Department. “We know there will be a lot of unprecedented audits. It’s a new area for everyone.”
This is especially true for small districts and charter networks that typically do not spend enough federal funding to trigger audits. The Colorado Charter School Institute has several charter management organizations that face this process for the first time.
“The question I got from the CMO is,’Do I really have to do this?'” Said Andy Denton, Director of Finance and Operations. She added that most people don’t want to spend $ 10,000 or so to pay an accounting firm to complete it. She reminds them that they got “a lot of money”.
When districts and charters apply for relief funds, some state authorities are kicking back those requests for more information before approving them.
In Georgia, for example, the state’s audit department initially rejected the district’s request to use relief funds to cover salaries. Georgia’s Ministry of Education spokesman Matt Cardosa interpreted the law as meaning that these funds could only be used to compensate for the state’s revenue decline.
To relieve the turmoil, federal officials sent a letter explaining that paying staff with relief funds “does not depend on lack of state and local funding.”
Marguerite Roza, director of the Institute of Education at Georgetown University, said some officials may not be keeping up with the “twist” in the message from the education department about “acceptable” costs. rice field.
According to the law, the Relief Fund for Education aims to “prevent, prepare and respond” to COVID. According to the latest interpretation from the department, the district needs to spend money for a “stronger emergence after a pandemic” to address the needs exacerbated by COVID.
The district is currently submitting a refund request to the state’s education department. The state education department usually submits approval promptly, except for some suspicious items.
“Some districts have demanded a high pressure washer to clean the sidewalks, which is very difficult to connect to COVID,” Cardosa said. “We don’t try to go too far [that] They can’t spend money, but we try to keep them from being audited. “
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