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State Auditor Blasts Cleveland Schools For Failure to Cash In Technology Rebates

photo of Dave Yost
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU

The state auditor has harsh words for the Cleveland schools in an audit over the district’s failure to cash in on millions in technology rebates. 

Auditor Dave Yost reviewed the Cleveland schools records after it lost out on $8.4 million in federal rebates it had already qualified for but failed to get because the district missed application deadlines.  Yost says a combination of weak policy and bad communication led to a breakdown in the process.

“At the end of the day, this is not a criminal problem, it’s a stupidity problem.”

Yost’s audit reached the same conclusion that the district’s watchdog panel came up with – that the mistakes were made by employees and a consultant before CEO Eric Gordon came on board in 2011.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.