From the Florida Times Union, by Topher Sanders
Duval County Public Schools has violated federal law for years by using Title I funds to pay teacher salaries in Title I schools, a citing from last year has revealed.
The district was cited by the state in October 2011 for using $2.7 million in federal funds to pay teacher salaries in 17 of its Title I schools during the 2010-11 school year, but the Jacksonville chapter of Southern Christian Leadership Conference brought the issue to light Wednesday during a press conference.
“You have asked the churches, you have asked the private sector and everybody else to help fund these schools and you keep coming up with these budget issues,” said Rev. R. L. Gundy, president of the Jacksonville chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “That’s a problem.”
Gundy was making reference to $100 million in reserve funds the Duval County School Board learned the district had in its coffers for the past several years, even as the board was making dramatic cuts to balance its budget.
Title I is a federal designation used for poorer public schools. Using the Title I funds to pay teachers allowed the district to pay staff but avoid having to use its general operating funds. The money was used to supplant cost at the schools as opposed to supplementing efforts at the schools.
“It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Gundy said, “hurting the kids.”
Jill Johnson, the district’s spokeswoman, said the district will not utilize the money in the same fashion moving forward. She stressed that the money still was going to Title I schools.
Johnson said the practice was not an effort to help remedy the district’s budget woes. Johnson couldn’t say exactly how long the district had been using Title I money in the manner cited but did say it had been going on for years.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-04-18/story/state-finds-duval-schools-improperly-used-federal-money#ixzz1sQHDNWtg
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