From: athos@apple.com (Rick Eames)
Subject: HERSCHENSOHN: Fresh Thinking About Education
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 22:19:49 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Followup-To: ca.politics

FRESH THINKING ABOUT THE US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

"The Department of Education doesn't teach a single one of our children -- 
and only contributes 6% of the massive cost of education."
            -- Martin L. Groff, The Government Racket, 1992
            

* Bruce Herschensohn believes the education status quo isn't defensible, 
and he supports reforming our educational system at all levels of 
government to improve our schools -- through merit pay, parental choice 
and abolition of the U.S. Department of Education.

CALIFORNIA GETS SHORT-CHANGED

* California's share of the fiscal year 1991 budget of the U.S. 
Department of Education was approximately $3.6 billion, according to 
statistics compiled by the Tax Foundation and Congressional Quarterly.

* Yet the U.S. Department of Commerce reports that in 1991, the 
Department of Education spent just $2.9 billion in California.  The 
remaining $700 million was eaten up in overhead and waste, or sent to 
other states.

* California gets only about 79 cents back from every dollar it sends to 
the U.S. Department of Education.  Herschensohn believes this is wrong, 
and that these funds should be kept in the state and spent to solve 
California's education problems directly.

WASTED DOLLARS

* Waste and abuse appear to be rampant throughout the Department of 
Education, recent reports by the Inspector General show.

* The Inspector General found in March 1991 that the Department had over 
17,000 expired grants, with unexpended grants totalling $665 million.  
Closing out expired grants would have saved taxpayers $296 million, but 
this area "has been a major problem since the Department's inception," 
the Inspector General found.

* "Systemic problems" plague the Department's efforts to monitor grants, 
the Inspector General has found.  "Primary among these is the 
Department's lack of an overall strategy for monitoring."

  -- During the 1980s, the Office of Vocational and Adult Education
     performed almost no on-site compliance monitoring of its
     nearly $900 million vocational and adult education formula 
     grant program.
     
  -- The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
     conducted an-site reviews of only about five percent of its
     2,200 discretionary grants in 1989.
     
* Because of weaknesses in the Department's management of student loan 
programs, "the Department itself believes its practices have contributed 
to high loan defaults, as well as fraud and abuse" in the student loan 
program, according to the inspector General.

  -- Approximately $300 million in student loans and Pell Grants
     will be awarded this year to students who have defaulted on
     previous loans, the Inspector General estimates.
     
* And as of October 1, 1991, the Department of Education had 932 
unresolved audit reports outstanding -- containing questioned costs 
totalling $633 million.  Six months later, the Department had fallen 
further behind -- with 1,099 reports unresolved.



--
Rick Eames                               My Opinions Are My Own (not
Apple's)
athos@apple.com

HERSCHENSOHN for US Senate.  Just say "No" to Barbara Boxer.