Auditor General DePasquale to Launch Audit of School District of Pittsburgh to Identify, Improve Education in City
Auditor General DePasquale to Launch Audit of School District of Pittsburgh to Identify, Improve Education in City
PITTSBURGH (Jan. 27, 2014)– Auditor General Eugene DePasquale today said he will begin an audit next month of the School District of Pittsburgh that could help the city design a blueprint for academic success and prevent financial collapse.
“It is no secret that the public school system in Pittsburgh is facing some serious challenges,” DePasquale said at a news conference with Mayor Bill Peduto. “The goal of our audit is to identify a path to solutions to these challenges. We want to do more than simply point out problems – we want to work with the mayor, city and the community as a whole to ensure that Pittsburgh’s school children are provided the best possible opportunities to succeed.”
DePasquale said he is concerned about a significant funding deficit for the district that apparently stems, in part, from declining school enrollment, loss of federal and state funds, growing pension costs and rapidly increasing tuition payments for students who attend charter schools.
Prior to the 2010-11 school year, the state provided indirect financial support to charter school education by reimbursing school districts a portion of their charter school tuition payments using established rates of approximately 30 percent to 42 percent. The School District of Pittsburgh paid $37.6 million in charter school tuition in 2009-10 and received $8.6 million in reimbursement from the state. The reimbursement was eliminated in the state’s 2011-12 annual budget without changes to the way charter schools are funded, which left school districts holding the bag for 2010-11 charter tuition costs they already spent.
In the 2011-12 school year, the School District of Pittsburgh paid nearly $50 million in tuition to charter schools — an increase of almost $10 million from the 2010-11 school year.
“Since the 2008-09 school year, charter school tuition costs for the School District of Pittsburgh increased more than $13 million while the state reimbursement went from $8.6 million to zero in the past three years,” DePasquale said. “If the state had not cut the charter school reimbursement, the School District of Pittsburgh could have put at least $25 million more into education programs in the past three years.
“Pittsburgh schools are not alone,” DePasquale said. “These are problems we are seeing across the state. The only way to avoid a continued downward spiral is for all of us to put our collective heads together to come up with some pretty innovative ideas and that’s what we pledge to do here in Pittsburgh.”
The most recent audit of the school district, released in January 2013, found problems with teacher certifications that led to state subsidy forfeitures of nearly $400,000; lack of internal financial controls; and a settlement with a former chief financial officer that unnecessarily cost the district $140,000.
School district audits typically assess whether the district resolved issues identified in the most recent audit as well as whether the district received the state subsidies and reimbursements to which it is entitled, accurately managed taxpayer funds, and complied with ethics codes.
The School District of Pittsburgh has an enrollment of more than 26,000 students in 54 schools and employs 3,900 people, including 1,875 teachers.
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