City controller wants additional oversight over schools budget
City Controller Alan Butkovitz yesterday weighed in on the Philadelphia School District's financial woes, calling for more oversight and greater authority for his office in reviewing district budgets.
City Controller Alan Butkovitz yesterday weighed in on the Philadelphia School District's financial woes, calling for more oversight and greater authority for his office in reviewing district budgets.
He also said district officials who preside over poor financial decisions should face sanctions, just like top managers who succeed get bonuses.
His comments came three days after State Budget Secretary Michael Masch released his report that said poor financial management controls and lack of oversight led to the district's $73 million deficit last fall and continued budgetary uncertainty. Masch's report, however, also found that the overspending led to significant student achievement gains and said the district does need more money.
"It is now opportune to consider new procedures to prevent a recurrence of the criticized practices that led to the existing deficit," Butkovitz said in a prepared statement.
Some of what Butkovitz calls for would require a change in state law; the rest could be done by the School Reform Commission.
Butkovitz said yesterday he would write to the commission to try to get the state General Assembly to consider the other items.
The commission declined comment.
Butkovitz wants his office to have "pre-audit" authority, meaning that it could review expenses of the current budget year. Now, it looks at the budget after the fiscal year has closed.
He also called for outside scrutiny of a five-year financial plan. Masch's report noted that the district has failed to create annual five-year plans, but the commission last week took steps to initiate them.
If a review agency finds fault with the plan, the district should face suspension of local and state funding until it is remedied, he said.
He also called for closer scrutiny of debt financing and greater disclosure on no-bid contracts.
Butkovitz said he also was concerned that not enough money was being spent in the classroom. He referred to Masch's report, which found that spending on elementary classrooms had remained the same over the last four years. Butkovitz said his office has found that classroom instruction expenditures had increased only 5.4 percent between 2002 and 2006, while administrative support services' costs went up 23 percent.
"We recommend shifting the emphasis on spending to educational and instructional areas," Butkovitz said.
He also wants consequences for personnel who engage in poor financial practices.
"If principals are held accountable for the operations of their school and budget spending, so should key administrators be held to standards of professional accountability," Butkovitz said.
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