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Schools' stimulus spending tough to track amid varied reporting rules

$181,000 spent on cars? Hey, it's better than $181,000 on drill-and-kill workbooks.

Reader Comment: Stimulus funds are just another example of how the feds take from the local taxpayer and then give it back, minus most of it. Tell me how paying electric bills with federally laundered dollars (or nonexistent dollars borrowed from China) stimulates the local economy.

By Jessica Meyers and Karel Holloway

Alongside textbooks and technology, Texas school districts have doled out stimulus money to car dealerships, Atmos Energy and neighboring cities.

Why? It's hard to tell.

Districts must report whom they've paid when they spend at least $25,000 in stimulus funds, but don't have to say what they've purchased. Anything less than that doesn't require federal reporting.

The state education agency asks districts to explain how they will spend their share of $7.1 billion, but the public can't obtain the information easily. Since few districts break down the purchases, most taxpayers don't know how their stimulus money gets spent.

"It's terribly complicated for most people, even parents who work in the business world," said Sandy Maddox, the deputy executive director of Region 10, the local branch of the state education agency. "It's an area of unknown, understanding who sets the rules when purchasing with federal money; and I think schools are grappling with that."

Money usually distributed by the state requires more paperwork now that it goes through the federal government. Another bucket of funds needs a different monitoring system, and the increased possibility of audits turns stimulus reporting into a laborious and time-zapping process, said Richard Matkin, Plano ISD's associate superintendent for business services. That means more accountability but less overall clarity.

"It all got very convoluted," he said. "It became cumbersome just for the finance people to explain to the general public what the stimulus money was and how we were using it."

Federal expenditure reports add to the confusion. They include payments to companies outside the district's normal supply chain but offer no further detail. This makes some acquisitions look questionable.

More accounting than scandal

Plano ISD has spent more than $25,000 – for Humanware software and at the University of North Texas. The Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district lists energy companies as its major vendors. Frisco ISD shows the biggest eye-opener – Caldwell Country Chevrolet.

The districts' answers speak more to accounting than scandal.

It turns out that Plano spent $36,000 on special education equipment to use with visually impaired students – the Humanware. The district paid UNT for 28 teachers to take a master's program class. Carrollton-Farmers Branch used the federal money to pay electric bills.

And the car spree? The Frisco ISD spent $181,000 on six Suburbans for a special education program.

Determining the funds' real use remains tricky because the federal Office of Management and Budget wrote the rules to cover all agencies receiving stimulus money, not specifically school districts, said Sandra Abrevaya, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education.

"Bottom line, [this was a] great first attempt at setting up a federal reporting system," she said. "It works quite well for some programs, but doesn't allow as much detail at the [district] level as we would have built in if we were designing it just for ED."

'Fiduciary duty'

Abrevaya said the reporting regulations provide clearer information for those receiving competitive grants for highways or energy projects.

The fiscally curious can track the money on recovery.gov, although the site offers only vendor names and total spending amounts. The Texas Education Agency does not have a website with stimulus spending details.

The state still requires this information, said Rita Chase, the agency's director of financial audits. "The feds give us the money, so we have the fiduciary duty to oversee that," she said.

Districts applying for grants through the Texas Education Agency must show how they plan to use the money. Once they get the grant, districts need to explain how they spent the funds. "It's kind of like reimbursement," Chase said.

Administrators say the system takes enough time without adding a comprehensive district breakdown. And it's unclear how many people actually care.

But San Antonio's Northside school district considers it crucial. A button on the front of its website takes users to pages detailing project information down to the school level.

"We wanted to at least put out there the intent, goals and how we're spending it," said George Torres, deputy superintendent for business and financial services.

About 1,000 have visited the site in the past six months. Torres shrugged off the low numbers.

"We thought it was an important part of accountability and transparency," he said.

WHERE DISTRICTS SPENT STIMULUS FUNDS

Select stimulus-funded purchases of $25,000 or more by local school districts:

Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD: Atmos Energy

Dallas ISD: Town of Addison , Waste Management of Texas

Frisco ISD: Caldwell Country Chevrolet

McKinney ISD: Jeannie Koons/Educational Designs

Plano ISD: Humanware

Plano ISD: University of North Texas

Richardson ISD: Advanced Hearing Center

SOURCE: Texas Education Agency


— Jessica Meyers and Karel Holloway
Dallas Morning News
2010-07-06
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/070610dnmetschoolstimulus.204faa4.html#slcgm_comments_anchor

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