San Diego Unified School District Spends Stimulus Money at Amusement Park

U.S. Department of Education auditors have called out the San Diego Unified School District for misspending some of the federal tax dollars it got under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as President Obama’s stimulus program. “The improper charges included $1,050 for the partial cost of a field trip to an amusement park and $1,900 for a sport fishing trip,” says the report, released last month. “The two field trips were part of San Diego’s 10-to-Succeed program. A San Diego Budget Analyst told us that the amusement park trip included specialized tours covering engineering components of the rides and was linked to classroom goals for the participating students. The sport fishing trip was similarly linked to classroom instruction in the sciences. Moreover, San Diego’s Federal and Special Programs Division office had approved both trips. However, we concluded that these trips represented entertainment…and, thus, were unallowable costs.”