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DISD misused federal grants
Exclusive: Federal aid paid for banned items bought with credit cards, records show
01:56 PM CDT on Sunday, September 24, 2006
By KENT FISCHER and MOLLY MOTLEY BLYTHE / The Dallas Morning News
In August 2005, Lincoln High's principal sent his boss flowers on her birthday. He paid the $47.50 charge with federal aid his school received to teach low-income kids.
Over a three-week stretch starting in April, an after-school director at Spruce Middle School used her federal grant to buy $3,460 in Wal-Mart gift cards. Today, more than half of them are unaccounted for.
Another elementary school rewarded students at a "TAKS Bash celebration" by giving away three PlayStation 2 video game systems, 10 CD players and three MP3 players. Teachers at another campus got cheap leather coats, fur-lined gloves and watches. In all cases, federal grants picked up the tab.
The Dallas Independent School District, already battered by a spate of financial scandals, could now face federal scrutiny for its spending of grant money. Public records show that educators used district credit cards to buy thousands of items of questionable educational value, spending money awarded to help educate the district's neediest kids.
Federal education aid is regulated by pages of rules that stipulate how it can be used. Primarily, the money can be spent only on items that are "essential to accomplish the objectives of the project."
The Dallas Morning News examined more than $321,500 in credit card charges made in the 2005-06 school year in the district's two largest federally funded grant programs. Using government regulations as guides, The News found that about $80,000 of that appeared to violate government rules.
I hope Hinojosa keeps his word and sends ALL these morons to jail.
DISD misused federal grants
Exclusive: Federal aid paid for banned items bought with credit cards, records show
01:56 PM CDT on Sunday, September 24, 2006
By KENT FISCHER and MOLLY MOTLEY BLYTHE / The Dallas Morning News
In August 2005, Lincoln High's principal sent his boss flowers on her birthday. He paid the $47.50 charge with federal aid his school received to teach low-income kids.
Over a three-week stretch starting in April, an after-school director at Spruce Middle School used her federal grant to buy $3,460 in Wal-Mart gift cards. Today, more than half of them are unaccounted for.
Another elementary school rewarded students at a "TAKS Bash celebration" by giving away three PlayStation 2 video game systems, 10 CD players and three MP3 players. Teachers at another campus got cheap leather coats, fur-lined gloves and watches. In all cases, federal grants picked up the tab.
The Dallas Independent School District, already battered by a spate of financial scandals, could now face federal scrutiny for its spending of grant money. Public records show that educators used district credit cards to buy thousands of items of questionable educational value, spending money awarded to help educate the district's neediest kids.
Federal education aid is regulated by pages of rules that stipulate how it can be used. Primarily, the money can be spent only on items that are "essential to accomplish the objectives of the project."
The Dallas Morning News examined more than $321,500 in credit card charges made in the 2005-06 school year in the district's two largest federally funded grant programs. Using government regulations as guides, The News found that about $80,000 of that appeared to violate government rules.
I hope Hinojosa keeps his word and sends ALL these morons to jail.
