Bureaucrats at the Maryland State Department of Education earned hefty salaries in apparent violation of state law, while day care centers operated without proper inspections, according to a state audit released this week.
Nearly 70 “loaned educators” — county school officials contracted by the state for various projects — were paid a total of almost $9 million in fiscal 2009, averaging about $130,000 annually and often “significantly higher than state employees serving in similar positions,” the report said. Their forces have ballooned since 1990, when 21 loaned officials earned less than $1 million.
According to the report, compiled every three years by the state’s Office of Legislative Audits, some of the positions “appeared to be in conflict with provisions of state law” concerning personal and professional conflicts of interest.
In addition, “the department is keeping these people there for years and years and years when [loaned educators] are designed to be temporary,” top auditor Bruce Myers said.
The department’s child care inspectors also came under fire in the report for failing to keep pace with their workload. A test of 100 facilities around the state disclosed that 76 of them did not receive at least one required observation. By law, child care centers are supposed to receive at least one unannounced inspection per year and at least one preplanned inspection every two years.
Locally, nine of 20 centers in Montgomery County missed inspections, while 18 of 20 in Prince George’s carried on unobserved.
The Education Department, run by Superintendent Nancy Grasmick, shot back at the 30-page report with a barrage of disagreements with its findings.
Grasmick defended the role — and the high salaries — of loaned educators by saying they contribute to “Maryland’s position as the No. 1 public school system in the nation.” But she added that the department in the future “will enter into contracts with local education agencies for new loaned educators only for special, short-term projects in which local talent is required.”
Grasmick blamed a shortage of resources for the missed inspections of child care facilities. Each specialist is responsible for 112 inspections per year, she said, for the more than 11,000 centers around the state. The maximum number each inspector should be responsible for is 75, she said, citing the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
The unusually contentious report will go before the General Assembly’s joint audit committee Tuesday.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to resolve some of our disagreements,” Myers said.
