By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – A report by McCaskill's office finds that half of the more than 200 districts her staff asked for detailed travel records were unable to provide it in an organized format.
McCaskill is recommending that the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education create a uniform framework for reporting travel expenses to be more accountable of public dollars:
"I can't sit here today and tell you that any of this money is inappropriate; I can't even tell you who's doing a good job because it's apples to oranges," McCaskill said. "We need to be able to compare apples to apples and that's what we're asking DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) to make an effort to do so that school districts can be compared fairly."
The St. Louis Public Schools were among those districts that did not provide records in the format auditors originally requested. The district spent $1.2 million on travel in fiscal year 2002.