Fixing the problem

West Virginia lawmakers on Monday were told that some county schools systems didn’t use the funding properly.

Legislative auditors detailed numerous issues on how millions of dollars were spent. The allegations include the misuse of some funding, while other money was spent with vendors not registered with the state. Auditors also determined that the state Department of Education wasn’t able to adequately track how counties were spending the money.

To be fair, as we’re seeing in other areas of government on the local, state and federal levels, few were prepared to handle the amount of funding that was being thrown at the problems that came with the pandemic.

The Department of Education lacks the staffing to line-by-line check county expenditures, but the agency has found problem areas in the past.

Further complicating the process were the thousands of pages of guidelines that came out with some of the federal COVID funding, making it more difficult for staff to handle the situation.

West Virginia school systems received more than $1.2 million in funding. The state Department of Education has only three employees who check the way counties spend federal dollars.

So while lawmakers — and taxpayers — should be concerned with the problems, the state must now be willing to put in place better procedures and back them up with the proper manpower.

“The fiscal monitoring system lacks appropriate risk assessment,” said Brandon Burton, a research manager with the Legislative Auditor’s Office. “The frequency of improper purchasing procedures and other ESSER grant violations warranted a reassessment of risk and adjustment to the system’s capacity and structure. The current monitoring process lacks appropriate structure due to a lack of written policies and procedures for the cyclical monitoring process.”

Fortunately, some county school systems used the funding appropriately. We know of several area school systems that used the funding to replace out-of-date HVAC systems with new ones that had improved filtration systems to improve air quality in the schools.

We also know some funding went to remedial programs to help students recover from lost classroom time, as well as for additional personnel to provide assistance.

But lawmakers and state Department of Education officials should continue to study expenditures and claw back any misused funds with the goal of having the school systems then properly spend them.

Lawmakers don’t have complete control over how county boards of education function, and they shouldn’t. But providing oversight and guidance is necessary to ensure the best system possible and the best use of taxpayer funds.

County school systems that haven’t followed the guidelines need to be held accountable and the money needs to be spent on helping students and staff.