The Hill News

The last place we need the federal government is in our classrooms. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear that President Obama’s Department of Education is intent on imposing its will on our institutions of learning, whether K-12 or higher education. Like many 9th-district residents, I believe education is a state and local issue. The federal government can play a supporting role in education, but the issue is best left to state and local officials.

For months, I have been challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s lack of understanding when it comes to the impact of a costly federal accounting requirement on Missouri career and technical schools when applying for Title IV funds. This federal regulation, which conflicts with existing state standards, has been in place since 1997. The regulation requires postsecondary education institutions to submit annual financial statements to the U.S. Department of Education prepared on an accrual basis.!  

For years, the U.S. Department of Education has allowed Missouri career centers to continue to operate under its current reporting system - cash accounting - because Missouri allows school districts to adopt any comprehensive basis of accounting. Missouri is unique from many states in that many of its career centers are part of local school districts. There are at least 32 vocational technical schools in Missouri that currently participate in the Title IV programs and are affiliated with local school districts. Over 90 percent of Missouri schools, regularly subjected to audits, use cash accounting. For most schools, many of which are rural, changing an entire school district’s accounting system for one affiliated career center necessitates an expense that many school districts simply cannot afford. This means career center programs will close down.  

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