The Columbus City School Board has abandoned its role to monitor the district’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funds. The Board has remained silent after the district’s Internal Auditor, Carolyn Smith, revealed the Board had not approved 20 million dollars in purchase orders referred to as Super P.O.’s. for the last four years.
The district’s Effectiveness Reports submitted to the Ohio Department of Education for fiscal year 2010 for Supplemental Educational Services (SES) vendors shows only 4 out of 72 vendors received an effective rating. This means the other 68 SES vendors allegedly serving students received well over $3,000,000 for FY 2010, but were considered either not effective or needing improvement in tutoring basic reading and math.
According to The Free Press, “Had the Board’s required Division Legislation Review been implemented, the standard pertaining to comparative prices would have prevented a number of the preferred SES vendors from collectively raising their prices from as little as $20 to as much as $85 an hour for tutoring students in basic math and reading.”
Title: No Child Left Behind scam: Purchase orders bypass Columbus School Board approval to funnel millions of federal dollars to questionable vendors
Publication: The Free Press, Nov. 9, 2010
Author: Kennedy Kent and James A. Whitaker
URL: http://freepress.org/departments/display/18/2010/3994
Faculty Evaluator: Karen Grady, School of Education, Sonoma State University
Student Researcher: Lindsey Tanner, Sonoma State University