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$3 MILLION
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We audited JTPA funds spent on a State of Florida initiative, the Florida Fund for Minority Teachers (FFMT), and found that nearly $3 million was improperly used. The Florida Legislature established the FFMT in 1996 to provide minority college students "scholarships" funded with Federal JTPA monies in exchange for their commitment to remain in Florida and teach after graduation. Students who accepted the inducements, but did not remain in Florida and teach, were required to repay, with interest, funds they had received.
We found that the State of Florida did not comply with the JTPA's provisions or Federal regulations because:
- students who received the scholarships were not dislocated workers, whom the JTPA funds were intended to serve;
- funds were provided to students without determination of JTPA Title III eligibility;
- requirements that students repay monies they had received if teaching commitments were not satisfied created a revolving loan fund, prohibited by the JTPA; and
- scholarships were provided to only certain ethnic and racial groups, in violation of Section 167 of the JTPA.
We recommended that ETA recover the $2,957,400 the State of Florida had misspent on the FFMT program. Additionally, we recommended that ETA obtain the State's assurance that all its JTPA-funded programs comply with the Act and with Federal regulations.
In its response to our draft audit report, Florida affirmed that the focus of the FFMT was to induce minorities into the teaching profession, not to serve dislocated workers. The State disagreed with OIG's finding that the FFMT was a revolving loan fund. Florida acknowledged its failure to determine JTPA eligibility of students during the first year of the FFMT program's operation.
(OA Report No. 04-00-001-03-340, issued January 24, 2000)
