Funds Were Mismanaged, Report Says

The California Department of Education mismanaged $21 million in federal funds earmarked for teaching English to immigrants, according to a state audit.

The department awarded funds year after year to organizations with abysmal track records of teaching students, the Bureau of State Audits report concludes.

Five of the 10 organizations reviewed, including Hermandad Mexicana Nacional of Los Angeles and Orange County, have been under federal investigation for more than a year. Federal authorities are investigating the state education department.

All the organizations had serious problems that were ignored by state education officials, the audit concluded.

The audit found “highly questionable” attendance records at eight of the 10 organizations, which are paid with federal adult education funds.

In one case, an organization submitted records claiming a student had taken classes that averaged nine hours a day, for 365 straight days. Another submitted forms showing classes taught on Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

State education officials said the audit, requested last year by the Legislature, failed to acknowledge numerous steps taken in the past 16 months to address the problems. The department has hired a new management team and imposed stiffer regulations and reporting requirements.

“We wish the report had provided some recognition or acknowledgment in terms of the very real reforms that the department has had in place,” said education department spokesman Doug Stone.

Department officials said the 10 community organizations reviewed by the auditor were not representative of the 86 groups receiving the funding in California.

The report was especially critical of Hermandad, which received the lion’s share of the state’s English-as-a-Second-Language adult education funds--$10.6 million from 1994 through 1998.

“In Hermandad’s case, they clearly didn’t even have the physical plant to provide as many classes as they were funded for,” said Anne Campbell, head of the team that prepared the report for state auditor Kurt Sjoberg.

State officials ordered Hermandad last year to pay back $4.3 million in federal funds after the group failed to provide documents showing the money was properly accounted for.

Hermandad officials have long denied any wrongdoing. On Wednesday, Hermandad executive director Bert Corona said the group has helped more immigrants become citizens than any organization in the state. “How did they pass the [citizenship] tests, if we didn’t teach them?” he said.

Hermandad development director Angelina Casillas said the organization continues to hold classes for immigrants without state funds.