[StBernard] Educators give FEMA a big 'F'

[Westley Annis]

Educators give FEMA a big 'F' 
Updated 4/30/2006 8:48 PM ET
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Eight months after Hurricane Katrina flattened the Gulf Coast
region and displaced about 372,000 students, school officials say
restrictions on how they can spend federal relief money are slowing down
their efforts to rebuild and reopen schools.
A few lawmakers say the effort should be stripped from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency altogether and handed to a proposed "education recovery
czar" at the U.S. Education Department.

In many cases, superintendents have started rebuilding efforts on their own,
crossing their fingers that federal aid would follow.

"We're in the position that we're funding the work, waiting for the check to
come later," says Mobile, Ala., superintendent Harold Dodge. He says he
hasn't seen a dime of promised "restart" money from the U.S. Education
Department. One of his schools was destroyed, and most others were damaged.

Though he hopes to see some of the needed $20 million this week, he says, "I
had hoped it would have been quicker."

Long a victim of Gulf Coast hurricanes, Mobile has an established fund that
essentially allows it to lend itself millions of dollars for repairs - after
Katrina it borrowed $9 million - in anticipation of FEMA aid.

But others aren't so lucky. Doris Voitier, superintendent of St. Bernard
Parish schools in Louisiana, told a congressional panel last week that
holdups have reached absurd proportions as she and others try to get schools
badly needed cash.

"I see very little of it actually getting down to the people who are
suffering," she testified before the House Education and the Workforce
Committee. "The people who are hurting, the people who are in pain, are not
receiving it."

St. Bernard was among the hardest-hit in Louisiana. But after meeting with
FEMA in October, she said it became clear to her that "we were on our own."
In one instance, she asked about replacing a school's cooling system and
learned that she'd have to find a comparable unit - built 12 years ago.

FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker chalks that up to misinformation from the local
FEMA representative. Federal guidelines, he says, allow rebuilding projects
to use new equipment as long as it's comparable to what was damaged.

Though FEMA has committed to paying 90% of reconstruction costs, districts
such as St. Bernard must still come up with the other 10% - which Voitier
and others say is impossible because the storm virtually washed away their
economy. Walker says school districts should look to states to help pay the
10%.

A few federal officials say the problem with distributing relief dollars
lies with overcautious state officials who don't want to misspend.

But school officials say they're right to be cautious - they must inform
Congress of all projects of more than $1 million and can't start until
buildings are assessed. But there's an acute shortage of assessors, they
add.

"Our focus has been on doing the right thing," says Beth Scioneaux, director
of Louisiana's Education Finance Division.

Considering the cash going to schools - $450 million to Louisiana alone to
get them operating again - Scioneaux says that's a virtue. "We feel like we
won't have issues with auditors in the future."

She says state officials "felt the pain of those districts" hit by the
storm. "We saw what they went through - we looked at their pictures. We sat
with them and heard their stories," she says.

U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., says caution is warranted, but keeping
someone like Voitier from rebuilding schools seems foolish.

"She's not going to run off with an elementary school," he says. "She's not
building a school that she's going to then sell."

After visiting the Gulf, Miller, the ranking Democrat on the House Education
Committee, proposed stripping FEMA's school reconstruction authority and
appointing an "education recovery czar."

"FEMA was never designed to deal with school districts," he says. "They just
don't appreciate that these people are borrowing money. They're having
serious cash flow problems to get the work done so they can open their doors
in September."

Walker says FEMA representatives are due to meet this week with St. Bernard
school officials to discuss recovery. "We're acutely aware that school
starts in the fall, so we want to get these needs taken care of as quickly
as possible."
 
  
Find this article at: 
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-04-30-katrina-recovery_x.htm