Governor Hochul Orders an Audit of School 'Administrative Bloat,' Starting With the District She Dislikes

AUSTIN — Governor Hochul directed the state comptroller this week to investigate how a handful of school districts spend their money, and, in a coincidence the Press is trained to notice, named as her leading example the one district whose politics she finds least agreeable.

The Governor called for at least seventy percent of school dollars to reach the classroom rather than the web of consultants and administrators she described, and cited a district where enrollment fell while administrative spending per student soared — a figure the district promptly answered with its own, showing that share declining every year since 2022.

Whether the numbers survive contact with the ledgers is a question for the audit that the announcement preceded. The announcement, for its part, did not wait.

The Press's education desk observes that auditing a school district for bloat is either responsible stewardship of the taxpayer or a governor using the comptroller as a cudgel against a city that voted the wrong way, depending solely on whether the district is one your party runs, and that the accounting is identical in both cases.

"We are simply following the money to the classroom," the Governor said, in a city she had selected before the following began.

At press time the tiny chairs stood empty, the ledger stood open under a very large magnifying glass, and the audit stood ready to confirm whatever the press release had already announced.