Up Close: Local school districts giving back millions

Money sent back to federal government

11:06 PM CST on Tuesday, February 17, 2004

By Dave Fehling / 11 News

Click to watch video

The Houston Independent School District is looking for ways to cut its billion-dollar budget.

And while it’s hoping to trim $30 million, it’s certainly not the only district with money trouble.

11 News has discovered, though, enormous amounts of federal funding being wasted – never used, and given back to the federal government.

Some of Houston's schools are older than the parents. And maybe not unlike people, buildings wear out. Things like the plumbing, floors and roof. Many such schools need help.

But money’s tight, right?

Well, 11 News found hundreds of thousands of dollars in money the federal government made available to local schools, but the schools never used it.

And the money got sent back to Washington.

KHOU-TV Some of Houston's schools are getting old and the buildings wear out. Things like the plumbing, floors and roofs need to be repaired.

"This is a travesty to send money back to the Federal government when those are Texas dollars," said Republican State Senator Kyle Janek.

How much money?

Records from the Texas Education Agency, which distributes the federal dollars, show:

• Aldine: sent back nearly $38,000 for literacy programs.
• Fort Bend: almost $14,000 for school repairs and literacy.
• Galveston: nearly $11,000 for building improvements and libraries.
• Katy: $11,000 for libraries.
• North Forest: nearly $32,000 for academic programs.
• The Cy-Fair District: over $500,000 for school facilities.
• And HISD: $750,000 for school repairs, improvements, and literacy.

For just one year, it totals $1.4 million in unspent federal help.

And it's not just schools here.

Statewide, Texas schools gave back over $11 million, far more than any other state.

"The simple fact is, $11 million is a lot of money in anyone's estimation, senator Kyle Janek said.

Or is it?

“Here’s how much as district we ate, and here’s how much we left on our plate,” said HISD spokesman Terry Abbott, pointing to a loaf of bread.

Abbott said the loaf represents the total federal dollars the district received, $102 million. A small slice, he said, represents the $750,000 it returned.

Abbott said that’s such a small amount, you’d need a magnifying glass to see it on a chart. “That’s how little amount of money we did not spend,” Abbott said. “But it’s three-quarters of a million dollars?” we asked. “Yeah, but it’s out of $102 million. Again, I say we spent more than 99 percent of the money and had to give back a relatively small amount,” he said.

HISD and other districts say, sure, they'd like to use every dime but say its not that easy.

The federal grant money isn’t just doled out to be used for whatever the schools want.

It’s for specific buildings, equipment, even specific special education students according to one district.

In HISD’s case, Abbott said one school repair contract came in substantially under budget, so the difference could not, under the rules of the grant, be used elsewhere but instead had to be returned to Washington.

State Senator Janek thinks that’s wrong. "This is where I think the school districts are not so much to blame, the process is very complicated.,” he said.

It’s money that might have made some schools here better, but in the end, never got the chance.

The failure to use the federal money has become a hot political issue.

Some Republicans in Congress say it shows how there's plenty of money to pay for new, tougher standards for schools. But Some Democrats disagree, saying its a "misleading accounting gimmick."