STAR-LEDGER

There are too many examples of big spending on overtime, travel and parties -- including a $10,000 employee pep rally in East Orange -- to believe audits ordered for the 31 school districts that get special state funding amount to punitive nitpicking.

Yes, some districts had their books in good order, and 71 percent of all the audited spending was deemed appropriate. In district after district, however, financial reviews found excessive, unnecessary or undocumented spending consumed 25 cents of every dollar in schools that collectively spend $4 billion a year. Of that sum, $3.1 billion comes from the state, much of it ordered by the state Supreme Court as part of the long-running Abbott lawsuit on school funding.

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