By LAWRENCE MESSINA
Associated Press Writer
CHARLESTON (AP) —
A proposed audit of West Virginia’s education spending enjoys widespread support, but that may not make its undertaking any less tricky.
Officials have yet to decide who would conduct the in-depth review, or even how to authorize it. Then there’s the scope. An estimated 14 cents of every dollar spent by the state goes to public education, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
The American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia included an audit in its wish list for next month’s special legislative session focused on education.
“We are not aware of any recent or ongoing investigation regarding the spending practices by governmental departments, agencies and boards of education funded with public education dollars and whether the funds are being used for the intended purpose,” the group said in its outline of the proposal, one of eight it wants lawmakers to consider.
The House-Senate working group assigned to consider possible session topics met Friday and agreed to recommend a spending review to Gov. Joe Manchin. He will choose the session’s final agenda, and has spent much of the year pushing for changes to West Virginia’s schools. The July session follows one in May, when his education proposals bogged down amid disagreements among lawmakers and opposition from groups like the teachers federation.
Manchin has embraced the idea of an audit and hasn’t ruled out ordering one himself. He told
The Associated Press last week that he welcomes the chance to scrutinize this spending, citing estimates ranking the state 16th nationwide for per-pupil expenditures.
The governor had called earlier for an audit, in 2008. But the idea ended up in bureaucratic limbo, apparently following funding concerns at the state Department of Education.
The working group discussed pursuing the audit through a resolution calling on House and Senate leaders to commission the audit. Candidates for conducting it include the Legisla-ture’s auditor, whose office regularly conducts reviews of public agencies and programs. Another is the duo of Tom Witt, who heads West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Eco-nomic Research, and Cal Kent, director of the Center for Business and Economic Re-search at Marshall University.
Another option is the state’s elected auditor. Manchin, meanwhile, has shown a penchant for hiring outside firms for such work. Friday’s meeting included a brief debate on assigning the task to an entity free of bias and conflicts of interest.
“We only ask that it be thorough and fair,” said AFT-WV President Judy Hale, who is also one of the working group’s nonvoting, non-legislative members.
The per-pupil ranking cited by Manchin underscores the job that awaits whomever is chosen.
The new state budget that starts July 1 will devote nearly half of all spending backed by general tax revenues, some $1.8 billion, to the Department of Education. About $1 billion of that is state aid to West Virgin-ia’s 55 county school systems.
Then there’s $382 million in property taxes, $113 million from lottery proceeds and $576 million in federal funds also earmarked by the new state budget for education. Hale told the working group that the audit should also encompass such education-related bodies as the Secondary Schools Activities Commission, the training-oriented Center for Professional Development and the state’s eight Regional Educational Service Agencies.
AFT-WV has called for an audit while alleging that county schools have added non-instructional and non-classroom jobs at the expense of teacher positions over the last decade.
“Class size has increased but the number of central office personnel has ballooned,” its report outlining its proposals to the working group said.
The report focused on Monongalia County as an example, and said that school system has lost nearly 22 classroom jobs while increasing outside posts by more than twice that number. During Friday’s meeting, Hale further alleged that cronyism was behind the hiring of 13 administrators there who lacked credentials for their positions.
The county’s superintendent, Frank Devono, said he’s hired only two central office administrators since arriving in 2005. Devono said his other non-classroom hires have been academic coaches, nurses, social workers trained to identify at-risk youth, and technology specialists.
“Their whole role is to go in and assist classroom teachers,” Devono said. “We are still holding our own in the classroom teaching. ... We think we’re really maintaining our money quite well.”
Several working group members predicted an audit would have difficulty assessing the value of positions inside and outside the classroom. Delegate Josh Stowers, D-Lincoln and an assistant principal, said lawmakers should decide beforehand who should act on and be accountable for the audit’s findings.
“There are plenty of county boards that can justify, very reasonable, certain positions, though I know there are others that cannot,” Stowers said. “I’m certain that we’ll end up with decent data that says that some counties are doing a great job and others are doing horribly.”
Lawrence Messina covers the statehouse for The Associated Press.
