Posted on 6/29/2004, 6:31:24 PM by BradJ
U.S. Tells States to Spend School Funds Federal Government Telling States to Make Plans to Spend Education Money or Face Losing It
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON June 29, 2004 — States are getting a reminder from the federal government: Make plans quickly to spend more than $2 billion in education money or be ready to lose it. The Education Department has found that all the states, the District of Columbia and eight territories have high cash balances left from 2002, including money meant for poor children, disabled students and limited-English learners.
That money must be obligated not spent, but at least legally earmarked toward a specific expense by Sept. 30, which is 27 months after it was released to states.
States then have two final years to spend the money. Ultimately, school money not committed or spent returns to the federal treasury, as happened with $155 million last year.
Todd Jones, a department budget official, acknowledged that the agency does not know how much of the 2002 money already has been obligated because states don't report that level of detail. Also, he said it would make sense if some of the dollars have not been committed, such as money for summer reading expenses that have yet to occur.
The department's move comes as an election-year fight grows over whether states and schools have enough money to do what's demanded of them under new federal law. House Republicans said Tuesday that states have $16.8 billion in unspent school money dating from the former Clinton administration, a figure that the Education Department confirmed but state school officials called misleading without context about how school financing works.
GOP leaders are expanding an argument made this year by the department, the White House and congressional Republicans: that schools are flush with federal money. It's meant to counter the claim that President Bush, who championed a law demanding greater improvement in all schools, has not come close to keeping his promise to pay for changes the law demands.
"We've literally flooded the system with cash, and it's time to start focusing on improving student achievement instead," said Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee.
The Education Department has issued letters to chief state school officers, reminding them of what appear to be substantial cash balances with just three months before the September deadline.
More than $2.1 billion is unspent from 2002, or about 8 percent of the money allocated for five broad areas, including special education and adult education. The department's letters to states identified only those cash balances that seemed particularly high.
The department issued its reminder, Jones said, to ensure that states don't miss their chances to use the money. It's part of a broader effort this year to help states account for all the federal money available and to draw it down more quickly.
"The states are telling us that they're not seeing this as a red flag at all," Jordan Cross, lobbyist for the Council of Chief State School Officers, said after leaders there reviewed the numbers with budget and top education executives from at least 10 states. "They expect, by September, that almost all of that money will be obligated."
Patty Sullivan, the council's deputy executive director, added: "To the department's credit, they gave us a heads-up on this. I don't think this is a `gotcha' activity. I think they really are trying to help."
Still, Sullivan said, the implication from the House education committee leadership that states "have a closet full of money" is misleading. School officials say there are several legitimate reasons why money is in the bank, from the government's own 27-month timeline for incurring expenses to federal delays in approving the programs that the money is meant for.
States have $16.8 billion in unspent school money, most of it from 2003, but $527 million from the final two budgets under Bill Clinton, according to the GOP-led education committee. The percentage of unspent money keeps growing yearly, and that's just as billions of 2004 dollars will be released this week, said committee spokesman Josh Holly.
"Yet the dems keep asking for MORE money."
And they will continue to do so as long as people keep giving it to them. I still don't see the point on the horizon where "it's for the children" doesn't work any longer.
So Bush is allegedly underfunding the "No Child Left Behind" Act (according to the Dems and Kerry) but the schools haven't spent money allocated to them since before Bush was even in office?
Is that what this is saying?
I propose that they give some to me.
aaarrrggghhhhh
hurry hurry spend the money, wouldn't want people to think they don't need it, raise the free lunch limit, buy some pro-homosexual books, install incompatible computers, just spend it!!!!
worse they keep complaining they don't have enough, that Bush has cut funding and that the bad guys are the ones asking about accountability. no news move on.
In 1999, the Education Department couldn't account for $20 billion. In order to balance their books, they just zeroed it out, never explaining where the money went.
It's not education money,
it's OUR money!
Our high school music department is charging students an exorbinant amount for operating expenses. We have to pay for the buses, uniforms, and lots of other band equipment.
"Hey, in the District of Columbia that money BELONGS to folks already. Spending has stopped while the silly charges against the good folks who stole all the teachers' union money are being taken care of. But, once we get back to normal, that money belongs to the friends and relatives of the brothers and sisters who deserve it. Sure, some will be spent on the chilluns! But, the money belongs to folks and they will be buying cars, vacations, jewelry and doing some celebrating with Mayor Berry and some of his friends. We just wish that the damn racist right wingers would stay out of school business."
BTTT
I have a much better idea -
tell the fed to keep its slimy illegal paws out of the states' rights especially schools!
Abolish the IRS and bring on the sales tax - if they must!
Sweet Moses! Do you have a source for that? I'd like to research it a little more...
What a waste of FED. money.My tax paying money.
The Department of Educations books have regularly come back as "unauditable" they are so poorly kept and there seems to be no way to telling how much or on what any money was spent.
This is a perfect example of how the Federal Government wastes money.
As the end of each fiscal year approaches (Sept. 30), there is a near panic as managers strive to burn up any unused money. If the money is not spent, then it is harder to justify the same level of funding in future budgetary cycles. Less money means less power for the managers who control it.
So, the money is squandered on useless or unneeded equipment, supplies, or services.
The fiasco was well covered. I think the CBO had to hold some sort of special meeting to support the claim that the books were just so messed up, they had to start fresh. Sounds awfully Clinton-like huh? I'll Google a while and see what I find.
My sister-in-law and her hubby are both auditors for the DOE. They spend many of their hours at home-office days. I know this because when she does, she's usually out shopping with my mother in-law who brags about her daughter's good fortune. They jet all around the country to do audits. All the deep south states in the winter and Maine/New England in the summer. GSA hotel stays keep them at Raddisson's and such, or quaint Bed & Breakfasts if they don't have the kid with them. They live like GSA royalty.
bump.
This thing turns out to be bogus. It's the exact same thing the UN just tried to accuse the Bush administration of -- not spending the money in Iraq yet. The White House rightly pointed out that this ignores the fact that money takes a while to get through the pipeline, in part to make sure it's spent responsibly (at least by government standards -- maybe an oxymoron). The last thing we want is for the big spenders to say the job isn't being done unless they've spent all the money at once.
There's a bigger issue here. It sounds nice and conservative, but it's actually got it all backwards: it's a lame attempt to distract us from all the federal education unfunded mandates. My local taxes go up when the feds keep telling my local schools what to do but never come through with the money to pay for it. Either get the federal government out of the business of education once and for all, or at least get them to pay for what they mandate. My taxes either way, but if we let Congress keep piling on the mandates without having to take the heat for the cost to taxpayers (because they just pass the costs down to the state and local level), they'll never rein in the spending.
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