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Jan. 17, 2006 – Senator Liston Davis, member of the Committee on Education, Culture and Youth said that the latest revelation that our local Education Department has returned an additional $2.1 million in unused federal funds is further indication that the department lacks competent leadership.
"Especially in this meager guava crop when our Education Department has already had to forego tens of millions in badly needed funds, it is extremely disheartening to learn of another $2.1 million that must be placed in the category of unused and returned federal monies," said Senator Liston Davis.
Just how our Department of Education measures up under the present Commissioner is evident by the fact that whilst on average the U.S. States and Territories returned $112.24 per pupil to the federal government, our local Education Department sent back sixty-five times as much to Washington, D.C.
"We have the dubious distinction of being evaluated among U.S. States and Territories as the jurisdiction which has comparatively sent back the most education funds to Washington, D.C," said Senator Davis.
According to the Senator Davis, this vindicates his often-cited statement that there is more in the mortar than the pestle, concerning the operations of the Department of Education.
"A clear indication of the chaos and lack of leadership within the Department of Education is not only evident in the failure to utilize federal funds in a timely manner but the recent resignations and announced retirements of several key personnel in the upper echelons of the organization speak to the low morale and dissatisfaction experienced by those who are caught in the throes of an absence of sound management in an entity to which many of them have devoted a significant portion of their lives," said Senator Liston Davis.
According to Senator Davis, during the past month, the federal grants manager; the Deputy Commissioner, Fiscal and Administrative Services; the State Director, Adult, Vocational and Technical Education; and the Payroll Director, have all departed the Department of Education with their many years of accumulated knowledge being lost to the institution.
"This is bound to have a deleterious affect upon an educational system, an agency that is already floundering on the rocks of incompetence," said Senator Liston Davis.
