Thousands of D.C. college students have had their semester thrown into turmoil because city officials stalled on getting the paperwork done for federally funded grants, The Examiner has learned.
The District of Columbia’s Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership is a $4 million matching grants program that’s designed to help D.C. high school grads afford pricey out-of-state tuition around the country.
More than 2,500 students who’ve been awarded the grants are still waiting for their money.
“There was a delay this fall in dispersing payments,” state superintendent’s office spokeswoman Nicole Shaffer told The Examiner in an e-mail exchange. “But all complications relating to that delay have been completely resolved.”
A high-ranking city source told a different story. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a fear of retribution, said the finance official assigned to work for the state superintendent’s office missed key deadlines and that officials are now scrambling to get the money out to thousands of students scattered around the country.
Shaffer did not respond to multiple requests to explain “the delay.”
But she said that “invoices are being processed and schools will be paid shortly.”
The LEAP grants are federally funded and the city kicks in its own share, Shaffer said. More than 8,000 students applied for the grants.
College is an expensive proposition for the D.C. graduates who get there; D.C. is home to three of the most expensive schools in the world and face escalating “out-of-state” tuition when they cross the District’s border.
Programs like LEAP are supposed to help take the sting out of college tuition. But education officials have struggled to get a handle on their federal grants.
Last year, State Superintendent Deborah Gist was given responsibility for cleaning up the school system’s benighted grants office, which had already landed on the U.S. Department of Education’s “high risk” list because of a failure to manage its money.
The Examiner reported last week that Gist forced the city to repay some $11 million in overdrafts from federal grants.
