Atlanta Public Schools May Have To Return Nearly $1 Million In Federal Funds

Atlanta Public Schools may have to return $967,022 of federal funds granted for falsely high test scores.

All 44 of the Atlanta schools accused of submitting answer sheets in which teachers erased student responses and replaced with correct ones in 2009 received the distinction of Title I Distinguished Schools. With the distinguished school title, schools proved for three consecutive years "adequate progress," and received anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars each, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

"We're concerned if they got money that was not due, that money could be revoked and they would have to recoup it," Matt Cardoza of the Georgia Department of Education told WXIA-TV.

The fund rescindment would likely occur if investigations show that the schools achieved adequate yearly progress as a result of corrected answers on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests. According to the AJC, two Atlanta schools, D.H. Stanton Elementary and Fain Elementary, each received $99,628 in federal funding between 2005 and 2009.

The exact date for funding repudiation, if the money must be returned, has yet to be determined, AJC reports.

"We don't want tax dollars to be given to people unjustly, so we want to make sure the record's straight," Cardoza told WSBTV.

The station also reports that the state is looking into whether the federal money was used to pay bonuses to teachers who cheated on the exams.

Officials are also investigating the financials of former APS Superintendent Beverly Hall, who announced her resignation from the post last November and officially left in June. According to the Atlanta Business Journal, Hall received tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses, a portion of which relates to improved exam scores. Officials are now assessing whether those bonuses were earned or resulted from falsified answer sheets. Hall repeatedly denies having knowledge of any cheating happening in schools during her tenure.

Comments

[srooge]

10:26 PM on 07/18/2011

the funny thing is the south is where all jobs are being producce. fake test scores = more jobs

[srooge]

10:24 PM on 07/18/2011

however the fake grades are priceless

[knott wrench]

03:17 AM on 07/16/2011

Atlanta paid Beverly Hill, about 400K, and this is the Result?

Wasn't she formerly The head of the City of Oakland, Calif., School's and left there with a similar
background moving to Atlanta?

[Conservativex3]

07:59 PM on 07/15/2011

Begin the Reform Now!

http://centralistchronicles.blogspot.com/

[barrashee]

09:48 PM on 07/14/2011

I'm glad there is a move towards a refund on the bonuses, but what of the teacher's and adminstrator's salaries? They committed FRAUD, plainly. They were hired to teach, they claimed to teach, then they misrepresented their "product" or results. In any other field there would be a trial and jail time.

[cornflower]

05:26 PM on 07/14/2011

"Hall received tens of thousands in bonuses, a portion of which relates to improved test scores."
Gee, d'ya think that maybe it's not such a great idea to tie test scores to bonuses for administrators, because it gives them great incentive to cheat? Bonuses and pay for test scores - not the answer in education reform!

[ramal]

03:29 PM on 07/14/2011

Cut the exorbitant salaries and bonuses of the top brass of the Atlanta Public School System down to $50,000. a year each and they could send the Federal Government the reimbursement cheque tomorrow.

[cornflower]

05:27 PM on 07/14/2011

Yes and then so many of the best and most talented people in education will want to be in administration in the Atlanta Public School System. Because, after all, in most other enterprises, the top brass is paid $50,000 a year.

[barrashee]

09:41 PM on 07/14/2011

I want the best and brightest in the classroom, not the administration. Spending per child has increased between 3x and 4x over the past 4 decades, with NO improvement in results. Between 50% and 70% of the increased spending is at the administrative level, varying by state. So stop being suckered into the "its for the children" ploy, stop feeding the fat cats in administration, take control at the local level and get more charter schools, more private schools, and voucher programs. Politicians with families in DC don't use the public schools, 'nuff said!

[Stephen Stafford]

03:03 PM on 07/14/2011

Due process, and replacing personnel involved with scandal free teachers and administrators is costing the school system millions, with no end in sight. The feds need to help the system and its new leadership with additional resources. The people involved with the system now have nothing to do with any misdeeds, and deserve support in getting the situation straightened out.

The angry and the haters can get their pound of flesh elsewhere. The costs of this scandal and its remediation are beyond what the system can afford as it stands.

[grammasher]

04:00 PM on 07/14/2011

I'm sorry--I don't think so. When we have problems with our schools, we don't go with our hand out to Georgia to bail us out. The feds you're talking about are people like me. Our state happens to be a donar state (we pay in more than we get back), while yours is a welfare state (you get more than you pay in). We've paid high taxes in our state to have a good quality of life. Our thanks for that has been for companies to move to states like yours where taxes are low. If you want a good quality of life there, raise your taxes and pay for it yourselves. Get all those companies that moved there for low wages and low taxes to start paying for your schools.

I know I sound bitter and selfish, but we're losing our quality of life here because some of the attitudes of people who live in your state have started to infect our state. Get out there and start demanding some action from the corporations in your state.

[Stephen Stafford]

04:38 PM on 07/14/2011

Payment of federal taxes is not akin to a state savings fund. There is no obligation, legal, moral, or otherwise, for a state to have returned the measure of federal funds and services that are remitted by the citizens of the state. People of no state owe anyone an apology or deference for federal goods, services, and funding achieved. This nation, its government, and her funds belong to us all.

I do not know where you live. I do know wretched and selfish views have been sweeping our nation coast to coast, and Georgia is neither the genesis or epicenter of the selfishness.

You may have noticed that the current zeitgeist is to reduce taxes to ridiculous levels. I am not aware of a state that has not been affected by downturns, shrunken revenues, etc. Our schools are financed by property taxes, as they are in most places. As part of the nation, we, too, have been subject to the real estate and foreclosure debacle.

We are all in this together. Hope you feel better. You know just what I am saying. You just have not been well today. You will be better soon.

No harm, no foul.

[cornflower]

05:28 PM on 07/14/2011

You may be losing your quality of life but it is inot because people who live in Stafford's state have attitudes.

[cornflower]

05:32 PM on 07/14/2011

The probem is with the concept of pay for test scores and test scores as the goal of education. And this case in Atlanta illustrates exactly why. Now we have a completely predictable cheating scandal, becuase it was only a matter of time when teachers and administrators have incentives to cheat that they would do that, being fallible humans and all, and so now we have to have the investigation of the cheating (thousands, if not millions spent on that) and the prosecution of the cheaters (more millions) and the possible jailing of them. Meanwhile, what the heck happened to educating children? Millions spent and none of it, not one cent, will improve the delivery of education to children at all. That is what is wrong with the concept!

[lovecindy1]

01:07 PM on 07/14/2011

GA is in big trouble. Take a look at this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XRWOvmGxAM