When it comes to providing financial information to the U.S. Department of Education, New Jersey doesn’t seem to have, well, learned anything.
A report released two weeks ago describing how much the states spend to educate their neediest students made little mention of New Jersey.
Why? According to the report, because “one state reported expenditure data that included expenditures from federal funds and therefore could not be included in the analyses.”
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, Allison Kobus, insisted her office followed the rules, which included a “preferred definition” about what information to include, but did not explain what would be “discluded” from the federal analysis.
With apologies from The Auditor to the Philosopher of Montclair, this sounds like déjà vu all over again. In August 2010, New Jersey lost $400 million in federal education funds in a competition called “Race to the Top” because it submitted incorrect information.
But this time, Bret Schundler, the former education commissioner left holding the bag for the administration’s $400 million misunderstanding, isn’t around to blame. Someone over there had better duck.
-from, The Auditor