| Shortchanging Charters on Federal Funds |
6/8/04 7:17 PM |
| Author:
Eric Premack
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To my knowledge, this issues has not been well documented, though the RAND study in California did touch on it (see page 99 of the following document):
www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1700/MR1700.ch5.pdf
In our experience, the primary problem for charters is the crushing administrative and compliance burden associated with applying for federal funds. Applying for federal funds in California entails:
1) Completing two software-based applications each year.
2) Writing an "LEA Plan" (our state's recommended template is 70+ pages long
3) Writing either a "schoolwide plan" or "targeted assistance plan" for spending Title I funds
4) Complying with a list of over 200 (sic) different state and federal compliance requirements
5) Engaging in a complex "coordinated compliance review" process
6) Buying, installing, and maintaining a sophisticated financial accounting system that can track federal funds and their use and making sure all funds from various programs are spent in accord with the many strings attached
7) Expanding the scope of your annual audit to include federal "Single Audit Act" requirmenets.
8) Filling out other federally-mandated paperwork on staff qualifications, school safety, etc.
9) Establishing and care/feeding of parental advisory committees
I'll stop here, but the list is much longer. We generally advise most small and mid-sized schools that it is not worth the hassle and risk to apply for federal funds.
-EP
Posted as a reply to:
Federal funding (re-post) by Judy Wiederhorn
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