State education officials need help with their numbers.
For the second time in as many years, a state application for millions in grant money got turned down by federal reviewers who questioned its budget — with New York coming in an embarrassing 23rd out of the 37 states to vie for the funding.
North Carolina and Massachusetts bested the nine states that were awarded a portion of the $500 million that is available this year as part of the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge.
The money funds education programs for kids younger than 5.
Several of the judges scoffed that New York’s pitch for $100 million set aside too much dough to pay for unnecessary administrators.
“There seems to be a lot of duplication among these positions,” wrote one reviewer, who called the hiring of six new administrative staff members “ top-heavy.”
“In a like fashion, it is unclear what three full-time program analyst specialists in the [state Education Department’s] office … will be doing,” the reviewer added.
The reviewers also questioned why fringe benefits proposed for workers involved with at least one project were so high — 56 percent of the budget.“Such an approach might work, but it might not,” wrote one.
Last year, the state Education Department initially lost out on hundreds of millions of dollars from a more general federal fund after its proposal asked for more than $200,000 for pricey office furniture.
A trimmed-down, second application was eventually successful.