State Treasurer John Fleming is urging school funding to be focused on classrooms and teacher salaries. Fleming says the recently released Legislative Auditor’s report uncovered significant discrepancies between certain budget and expenditure reports.
“Many schools are not, apparently, abiding by the regulations when it comes to what monies go to the classroom and what goes to other budget items,” Fleming said.
Fleming’s call also comes following a review of financial information from the K-12 School Transparency Project, which he says showed some questionable expenditures.
“$1.09 million in meals and entertainment; $692,000 in retreats and special events; $175,841 in DoorDash and Uber Eats,” Fleming noted, with those figures being the total amount spent on those items by several different schools.
Fleming says eliminating unnecessary spending can get teachers the additional pay that they had been seeking for years. He says it starts with better transparency.
“To be sure that the students and the parents and the public-at-large understands where their money is going; and it’s up to other agencies and individuals to pursue that alongside us,” Fleming explained.
