Report: MDE fails to report afterschool program results

Key Points

• A new analysis from the State Auditor’s Office reveals the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) has not published federally mandated evaluations for afterschool programs since November 2022.
• Despite the lack of oversight, more than 11 million dollars in federal grant funds were spent by nonprofits and school districts in fiscal year 2024.
• Investigators identified significant data flaws, including “attendance buckets” that fail to distinguish between frequent participants and those who attend only once.

JACKSON, Miss. — Millions of dollars in federal grants continue to flow through the Mississippi Department of Education to afterschool programs despite a years-long failure to evaluate their effectiveness, State Auditor Shad White announced Thursday.

A new report from the Auditor’s Office found that the MDE has not published federally mandated statewide evaluations since November 2022. During fiscal year 2024 alone, the nonprofits and school districts identified in the study spent more than 11 million dollars from the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant program.

“As we have seen on the news in Minnesota and here at home during the welfare scandal, making sure that these taxpayer funds are monitored is critical,” White said. “We will continue to highlight any weaknesses we see in the programs providing money for afterschool or childcare centers.”

The investigation highlighted several systemic failures in how the MDE manages subgrantees. According to the report, some organizations may have violated state and federal regulations by hiring external evaluators who lacked independence. In one instance, a grantee hired an individual employed by the nonprofit arm of the very organization they were tasked with evaluating.

Analysts also took aim at the MDE’s methods for tracking student participation. Current data structures group students into “attendance buckets,” which treat a student attending a single day per month the same as a student with perfect attendance. This lack of granularity makes it nearly impossible for taxpayers to determine if the 11 million dollars in spending is yielding educational results.

This inquiry marks the second report in a series by the State Auditor’s Office focused on taxpayer-funded childcare and afterschool initiatives in Mississippi. The full findings are available on the State Auditor’s website under the reports tab.