Bill Text: MS HB418 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Department of Education; require to provide monthly report of expenditures of public funds.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2020-03-03 - Died In Committee [HB418 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2020-HB418-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2020 Regular Session
To: Education
By: Representative Owen
House Bill 418
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 37-1-12, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO ADOPT REGULATIONS PROVIDING FOR THE REPORTING OF ALL EXPENDITURES OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MADE WITH FEDERAL AND STATE PUBLIC FUNDS; TO REQUIRE THE REPORTS TO BE MADE ON A MONTHLY BASIS FOR SUBMISSION TO THE STATE AUDITOR, WHO SHALL BE AUTHORIZED TO INSPECT SUCH EXPENDITURES AT ANY TIME DEEMED NECESSARY, AND TO THE CHAIRMEN OF THE HOUSE AND SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEES; TO AMEND SECTION 37-3-11, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THE REPORTS TO BE SUBMITTED ON THE LAST OFFICIAL BUSINESS DAY OF EACH MONTH; TO PROVIDE THAT THE EXPENDITURE REPORT SHALL INCLUDE THE CURRENT MONTH'S EXPENDITURES AND AN AGGREGATE OF EXPENDITURES MADE TO DATE FOR THE CURRENT REPORTING FISCAL YEAR; TO AMEND SECTION 37-151-97, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THE BUREAU OF INTERNAL AUDIT AND THE OFFICE OF ACCOUNTING WITHIN THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO DEVELOP THE PROCESS BY WHICH MONTHLY REPORTING IS TO BE CONDUCTED; TO STIPULATE THE MINIMUM REQUIRED INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN THE REPORT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 37-1-12, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-1-12. The State Board of Education shall develop and promulgate regulations for annual reports from school districts and from the State Department of Education to the Legislature. Such regulations shall eliminate duplication, make effective use of technology and enable the Legislature to monitor education in Mississippi. These regulations may include methods to reduce redundant reporting requirements and eliminate inadequate performance measures, and the State Board of Education may include any proposed legislative amendments to state law necessary to improve statewide reporting mandates, and shall include a report of all expenditures of the State Department of Education made with federal and state public funds. The regulation addressing the department's expenditure of public funds adopted by the State Board of Education shall require that such reports shall be made on a monthly basis, and shall be submitted to the State Auditor, who shall be authorized to inspect such expenditures at any such time as he or she deems necessary, and to the Chairmen of the House and Senate Education Committees.
SECTION 2. Section 37-3-11, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-3-11. The State Superintendent of Public Education shall perform the duties assigned to him by the State Board of Education, and he shall have the following duties:
(a) To serve as secretary for the State Board of Education;
(b) To be the chief administrative officer of the State Department of Education;
(c) To recommend to the State Board of Education, for its consideration, rules and regulations for the supervision of the public schools and agricultural high schools of the school districts throughout the state and for the efficient organization and conduct of the same;
(d) To collect data and make it available to the state board for determining the proper distribution of the state common school funds;
(e) To keep a complete record of all official acts of the State Superintendent and the acts of the State Board of Education;
(f) To prepare, have printed and furnish all officers charged with the administration of the laws pertaining to the public schools, such blank forms and books as may be necessary to the proper discharge of their duties, which printing is to be paid for out of funds provided by the Legislature;
(g) To have printed in pamphlet form the laws pertaining to the public schools and publish therein forms for conducting school business, the rules and regulations for the government of schools that the State Superintendent or the State Board of Education may recommend, and such other matters as may be deemed worthy of public interest pertaining to the public schools, which printing is to be paid for out of funds provided by the Legislature;
(h) To meet all superintendents annually at such time and place as the State Superintendent shall appoint for the purpose of accumulating facts relative to schools, to review the educational progress made in the various sections of the state, to compare views, discuss problems, hear discussions and suggestions relative to examinations and qualifications of teachers, methods of instruction, textbooks, summer schools for teachers, visitation of schools, consolidation of schools, health work in the schools, vocational education and other matters pertaining to the public school system;
(i) To advise all superintendents upon all matters involving the welfare of the schools, and at the request of any superintendent, to give an opinion upon a written statement of facts on all questions and controversies arising out of the interpretation and construction of the school laws, in regard to rights, powers and duties of school officers and superintendents, and to keep a record of all such decisions. Before giving any opinion, the superintendent may submit the statement of facts to the Attorney General, and it shall be the duty of the Attorney General forthwith to examine such statement and suggest the proper decision to be made upon such fact;
(j) To require annually, and as often as the State Superintendent may deem proper, of all superintendents, detailed reports on the educational business of the various districts;
(k) On or before January 10 in each year to prepare, under the direction of the State Board of Education, the annual information report of the State Department of Education as described in Section 37-151-97;
(l) To determine the
number of educable children in the several school districts under rules and
regulations prescribed by the State Board of Education; * * *
(m) To perform such
other duties as may be prescribed by the State Board of Education * * *; and
(n) To prepare, under the direction of the State Board of Education, a monthly financial report of all the State Department of Education's expenditures of federal and state public funds, which shall be submitted, on the last official business day of each month, to the State Auditor and to the Chairmen of the House and Senate Education Committees. The expenditure report shall include the current month's expenditures and an aggregate of expenditures made to date for the current reporting fiscal year.
SECTION 3. Section 37-151-97, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-151-97. (1) The State Department of Education shall develop an annual reporting process to inform the Legislature, local district personnel and the general public as to the ongoing and future plans for the state's educational programs. The annual reporting process will include those vital statistics that are commonly reported by schools and districts and that can provide clear demographic, strategic and educational information to constituencies such as, but not limited to, the following information:
(a) Student enrollment, attendance, drop-out and graduation;
(b) Overall student and district achievement;
(c) Budget, administrative costs and other pertinent fiscal information, including:
(i) The receipts and disbursements of all school funds handled by the board;
(ii) Reports of expenditures for public schools, which, upon request must be made available on an individual district basis by the State Department of Education;
1. Total Student Expenditures:
a. Instruction (1000s);
b. Other Student Instructional Expenditures (2100s, 2200s);
2. General Administration (2300s and 2500s);
3. School Administration (2400s);
4. Other Expenditures (2600s, 2700s, 2800s, 3100s, 3200s); and
5. Nonoperational Expenditures (4000s, 5000s, 6000s);
(iii) The number of school districts, schoolteachers employed, school administrators employed, pupils taught and the attendance record of pupils therein;
(iv) County and district levies for each school district and agricultural high school;
(v) The condition of vocational education, a list of schools to which federal and state aid has been given, and a detailed statement of the expenditures of federal funds and the state funds that may be provided, and the ranking of subjects taught as compared with the state's needs.
(d) Other as directed by the State Board of Education.
(2) Further, the reporting process will include an annual report developed specifically to relate the mission and goals of the State Board of Education, state superintendent and departments. This document will become the method through which the strategic planning and management process of the department is articulated to the public. It will explain and inform the public of the major initiatives of the department and clearly identify rationale for program development and/or elimination. The report will establish benchmarks, future plans and discuss the effectiveness of educational programs.
(3) In addition to the information specified herein, the State Board of Education shall have full and plenary authority and power to require the furnishing of such further, additional and supplementary information as it may deem necessary for the purpose of determining the cost of the adequate education program in such school district for the succeeding fiscal year, the amount of the adequate education program funds to be allotted to each school district for the succeeding fiscal year, and for any other purpose authorized by law or deemed necessary by said State Board of Education.
(4) The Bureau of Internal Audit and the Office of Accounting within the State Department of Education shall develop a monthly reporting process to inform the State Auditor and the Chairmen of the House and Senate Education Committees of the systems and operations utilized by the department for expenditures of federal and state public funds. The monthly reporting process shall, at a minimum, include an itemization of categorical spending by bureau and division, program administration, contract procurement, capital improvements, and school and district allocations, except that salaries for all department personnel shall only be made available in the June monthly report.
(5) It shall be the duty of the State Department of Education to prescribe the forms for the reports provided for in this section.
SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2020.
