Desegregation Activities

Administration of Education Grant Funds at the Cleveland School District Gao ID: HRD-89-83 August 29, 1989

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed Department of Education grants awarded to the Cleveland, Ohio, School District, for desegregation activities, to determine: (1) the total amount of federal funding the school district received; (2) the school district's compliance with a 1978 desegregation court order and grant agreements; (3) the school district's compliance with federal grant conditions and restrictions; and (4) whether Education adequately monitored and administered the grant agreements.

GAO found that the school district: (1) received a total of $30.2 million in federal funds from 1978 through 1987 for desegregation activities; (2) used federal funds derived from the Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA) and Magnet School Assistance Programs (MSAP) consistently with the 1978 court order; (3) spent other federal funds on desegregation activities, but did not comply with all of the specifications of the 1978 court order and subsequent federal grant agreements; (4) requested and received excessive advances of federal grant funds and accrued interest on those advances, but did not report or remit that income to Education; (5) obligated and spent first-year grant funds during the second year, without Education approval, and spent more than $1.5 million in ESAA 1979-1980 and 1981-1982 funds during the 1985-1986 school year; and (6) did not comply with some federal procurement requirements. GAO also found that Education did not adequately monitor and administer the grant agreements.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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