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Superintendent Underly Skips Hearing
Wisconsin’s public schools managers are facing another crisis, and crisis of faith among Republican lawmakers.
The Legislative Audit Bureau on Wednesday released its audit of how the Department of Public Instruction tracks required school financial reports, and the audit is scathing.
"The FY 2022-23 financial information resulted in the identification of material weaknesses for 182 school districts, 9 independent charter schools, and 136 Parental Choice program schools and SNSP schools," the audit stated. "The most common types of financial reporting findings issued in FY 2022-23 related to preparation of required financial reports, segregation of duties, and audit adjustments. Some findings reported in FY 2022-23 financial information were repeated from prior years, including findings for 262 school districts that had been reported for 4 consecutive years and for 3 independent charter schools that had been reported for 3 consecutive years."
The audit came after Milwaukee Public Schools were more than a year late with its required financial reports from 2022-23.
DPI told lawmakers on Wednesday that it warned MPS several times, and gave the district a heads-up before eventually docking their state aid.
But that strategy is at odds with DPI’s position on choice schools. The audit showed that DPI threatened to dock choice schools state aid if they were even a week late. Any choice school that was a month late was actually docked.
State Superintendent Jill Underly angered lawmakers by not showing up to a Wednesday hearing on the audit.
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, and Rep Bob Wittke, R-Caledonia, accused Underly of refusing to "face her own failures."
"Although she was available to appear in the State Capitol, Superintendent Underly simply chose not to face questions on very serious financial matters. Instead, our absent state superintendent sent her deputies to handle a matter she had an obligation to do herself as the leader of DPI," the two said in a statement.
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