Federal

Federal Audit Criticizes Management of State Scholars Initiative

By Michelle R. Davis — January 31, 2006 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The State Scholars Initiative has been a pet project of President Bush’s and could guide the Department of Education in defining a “rigorous” high school curriculum under a bill now pending in Congress. But the program has had a rocky past, a recent, highly critical federal audit shows.

The program grew from a privately financed initiative in Texas to encourage students to take more demanding high school classes to a federally funded national project that was plagued by poor management. Last fall, a new organization took over the program with the hope of widening its scope.

See Also

Read the accompanying story,

Bill Pushes ‘Rigorous’ Curricula

The endeavor is getting a fresh look in light of a budget bill—close to final passage by the House—that includes a measure encouraging students from low-income families to pursue a challenging high school curriculum in return for extra college grant money. The measure would give the U.S. secretary of education authority to define a “rigorous” curriculum for students hoping to qualify. One possibility would be citing the State Scholars curriculum.

So far, 14 states are participating in the State Scholars Initiative, and there are plans to add another eight to 12 in the near future, said Terese S. Rainwater, the director of the initiative.

The initiative, which since October has been run by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, or WICHE, based in Boulder, Colo., is funded by a two-year, $6.1 million grant from the Education Department’s vocational education office.

States that are accepted for participation receive $300,000 over two years for the initiative. But a state’s business roundtable or chamber of commerce—not its education department—manages the money.

Texas Origins

Before WICHE took over management of the program, it was run by the Austin, Texas-based Center for State Scholars. The center was in part formed and managed by the Texas Business and Education Coalition, which had also created the Texas Scholars program in 1992.

The Texas Scholars program caught the eye of George W. Bush, who was first elected governor of Texas in 1994. In 2002, after Mr. Bush became president, the federal Education Department awarded the Center for State Scholars a four-year, $9.6 million grant to essentially take the Texas Scholars program national.

But oversight of the federal money fell short, federal auditors say. A Jan. 17 audit by the Education Department’s office of inspector general cited numerous administrative problems, including a lack of accounting and documentation for nearly $2 million of the federal money.

Also, the audit found that the Education Department itself had not followed proper procedures in awarding the grant. Though the department had called the grant “unsolicited,” the audit found that “the application was not genuinely unsolicited because it was completed with the department’s endorsement and involvement.”

Because of the management problems, the Education Department contracted with WICHE to run the program, and federal officials have high hopes for its future.

“It’s a really exciting idea of building coalitions between business leaders and states,” said Braden Goetz, the director of the Education Department’s policy-research and -evaluation staff. “It is a real-world connection.”

Related Tags:

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Low-Performing Schools Are Left to Languish by Districts and States, Watchdog Finds
Fewer than half of district plans for improving struggling schools meet bare minimum requirements.
11 min read
A group of silhouettes looks across a grid with a public school on the other side.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
Federal Biden Admin. Says New K-12 Agenda Tackles Absenteeism, Tutoring, Extended Learning
The White House unveiled a set of K-12 priorities at the start of an election year.
4 min read
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
Steven Senne/AP
Federal Lawmakers Want to Reauthorize a Major Education Research Law. What Stands in the Way?
Lawmakers have tried and failed to reauthorize the Education Sciences Reform Act over the past nearly two decades.
7 min read
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., left, joins Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, as Starbucks founder Howard Schultz answers questions about the company's actions during an ongoing employee unionizing campaign, at the Capitol in Washington, on March 29, 2023.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., left, joins Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, at the Capitol in Washington, on March 29, 2023. The two lawmakers sponsored a bill to reauthorize the Education Sciences Reform Act.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Federal Will the Government Actually Shut Down This Time? What Educators Should Know
The federal government is once again on the verge of shutting down. Here's why educators should care, but shouldn't necessarily worry.
1 min read
Photo illustration of Capitol building and closed sign.
iStock