Аудит выявил избыточность управления и проблемы с контролем грантов в агентстве образования Техаса

Waste Watch: State audit finds Texas Education Agency top-heavy, other red flags AUSTIN — A new state audit found the Texas Education Agency’s hiring practices created a management-heavy structure and identified problems with grant monitoring, pre-kindergarten oversight, contracting and internal procedures. The State Auditor’s Office found no unallowable expenses in the areas it tested. However, the audit says TEA can strengthen its oversight of state-funded grants, contracts, digital signatures and public-private pre-kindergarten partnerships. Management-heavy structure The audit found that as of Aug. 31, 2025, TEA had one manager for every 3.5 full-time employees. Texas law requires large state agencies to maintain at least 11 staff employees for every manager unless the Legislative Budget Board approves an exception. The statewide average for large state entities was one manager for every 9.7 employees. The auditor gave TEA’s management-to-staff ratio finding a medium-risk rating. TEA spent $44.7 million on management salaries and wages in fiscal year 2025 — up nearly 64% from fiscal year 2021. Management staff grew 38% during that period, compared with a 12% increase in non-management staff. The audit recommends TEA lower its management-to-staff ratio or obtain Legislative Budget Board approval to keep it. TEA’s management response says it submitted a waiver request to the board and says many managers have substantial individual-contributor duties. The finding comes as Gov. Greg Abbott has called for the comptroller to review spending at up to four Texas school districts, saying taxpayer money should reach students and teachers instead of being absorbed by central-office growth, non-instructional bureaucracy and “administrative bloat.” Lawmaker calls for scrutiny State Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos, D-Richardson, authored the budget rider that prompted the audit. We knew there were a lot of issues at TEA or we were fairly certain... we needed to see what was really going on behind those closed doors at TEA. She told CBS Austin, KFDM's the same scrutiny should apply to TEA, the agency that oversees and grades Texas public schools. “We really need to look at whether we’re taking over TEA, because the standards that they’re putting on our public schools, he’s completely overlooking when it comes to the agency that’s right under his own nose,” Rodríguez Ramos said, referring to Abbott. High-risk grant oversight findings The auditor gave TEA’s oversight of state-funded grants and pre-kindergarten expansion monitoring high-risk ratings. Auditors reviewed 59 state-funded grants worth $571 million and found inconsistent oversight in 10 of them. The audit found: - Five grants lacked records or information supporting required performance measures. - Two grants were not monitored because program staff considered them pass-through grants. - Three grants lacked evidence of specific monitoring activities staff said had been completed. The report says TEA did not establish minimum monitoring guidelines for state-funded grants, allowing the level of oversight to vary by program department. Across a broader two-year period, TEA awarded 5,401 state-funded grants and disbursed $1.9 billion. Auditors also found 11 grant notices carried the digital signature of a former TEA employee. The report says failing to retire a former employee’s signature creates a risk it could be used improperly to validate records or approve payments. Pre-K, contracts and travel The audit found TEA did not verify that public and open-enrollment charter schools expanding pre-kindergarten programs through private partnerships ensured providers met all applicable requirements. Those requirements include child-care licensing standards, required designations and accreditations, class-size limits and required contract terms. The auditor also found 11 of 60 contract evaluators tested did not complete required nepotism disclosure forms. Six active contracts worth more than $100,000 were not posted on TEA’s website, along with four statements of work or purchase orders for services exceeding $50,000. All 70 procurement-card transactions and 63 travel expenses tested were allowable, supported by documentation and accurately recorded. But 11 of the 63 travel expenses lacked required travel-authorization forms, meaning TEA’s practice did not align with its policy. The audit gave TEA’s oversight of open-enrollment charter schools a low-risk rating, finding the agency had processes and safeguards in place. TEA responds TEA told CBS Austin that it sends $40 billion to school systems each year and called the audit results “extremely clean.” “TEA sends out 40 billion dollars to school systems each year to support Texas public education. Within the scope of the audit, there were zero unallowable expenses identified, and the results were extremely clean. As is common with audits of this scope, the SAO identified opportunities for the agency to improve, and TEA has already begun implementing identified improvement.” TEA also defended its staffing structure. Compared to the more than 100 Texas state agencies reviewed, TEA is the third leanest, most efficient state agency with regard to the ratio of employees to total appropriations. The agency added: “Of all the state education agencies in the United States, TEA is the single most efficient state education agency (smallest staffing ratio compared to statewide enrollment) in the country.”