Audit Finds $665 Million in Unused Funds Idle at E.D.

By Mark Pitsch

WASHINGTON--At a time when educators nationwide are decrying budget constraints at the state and local levels, more than half a billion dollars worth of unspent grants is sitting idle at the Education Department.

According to a recent report by the department's inspector general, the agency carries on its books more than $665 million, the residue of an estimated 17,000 grants awarded over the past 16 years to education institutions and contractors. If the department closed out the grants, the money would revert to the federal treasury.

In some cases, the grantees simply failed to spend all the money the government awarded them. In others, the grants may have been used but remain on the books because records of the expenditures were...