After spending a good portion of 2022 reporting on the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, or GEER, there are nonetheless unanswered questions. Mainly, I’ve been looking for out what is occurring with GEER 2, which is sort of $18 million for Oklahoma students to get better from the pandemic.
Gov. Kevin Stitt acquired these funds in January 2021 as a part of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act. (The first allocation of GEER funds, $40 million, was spent on 5 packages, and a type of has confronted scrutiny as a result of lax oversight allowed households to purchase gadgets unrelated to students’ training.)
Very little has been mentioned publicly about GEER 2. We reported how the state solicited concepts for the funds again in December 2021, however in the end held off as the primary GEER packages have been audited by the U.S. Department of Education.
The deadline to make use of GEER funds approaches. States have till the top of this month to completely spend the primary spherical of GEER and till the top of January 2024 to spend the second, a U.S. Department of Education official mentioned final week.
Programs have but to be introduced or awarded and the funds must be distributed and spent in one 12 months.
But one cause for the delay is the state is attempting to rectify the oversight points discovered from the primary spherical. Roy Loewenstein, press secretary for oversight on the U.S. Department of Education, informed me the division is working with Oklahoma officers to resolve the findings from a federal audit launched this summer time.
“In the interim,” Loewenstein mentioned, “the state has been working to implement improved internal controls as required by the department’s monitoring of the state’s implementation of the program.”
One means state officers intend to get better misspent funds is thru a lawsuit filed in August in opposition to the seller, Florida-based ClassWallet. But Attorney General John O’Connor nonetheless hasn’t served the corporate with the lawsuit, which suggests ClassWallet has not been in a position to file its response to the allegations.
And the following lawyer basic, Gentner Drummond, informed The Oklahoman he’ll take into account dropping that lawsuit if he believes state officers have been at fault.
Thoughts, feedback or story concepts? I’d love to listen to from you through email or direct message.
— Jennifer Palmer
submit credit score to Source link