A state review of El Paso ISD's finances wrapped up Thursday with district leaders saying the Texas comptroller's team credited them with real progress, even as an El Paso lawmaker questioned why the reviewers also asked how many students enrolled without a Social Security number.
El Paso ISD is one of four districts the Comptroller's Office is reviewing after Gov. Greg Abbott asked for a state financial investigation into whether districts are putting more state money into classrooms than into administration, El Paso Matters reported in a story republished by The Texas Tribune on Friday.
The student records request
Board President Leah Hanany confirmed the district gave the comptroller records showing how many students enrolled with a Social Security number and how many enrolled with an alternative identification number the state approves. Districts assign the alternative number when a family does not supply a Social Security number.
Hanany said the figures cannot show anyone's citizenship. "Anybody can register their child using an alternate number," she told El Paso Matters. District leaders said at a Friday news conference that they turned over totals only and no records identifying individual students, KFOX reported.
According to a release from state Rep. Vince Perez, D-El Paso, Comptroller Don Huffines' office had told the district not to include identifying information.
The reviewers also asked for budgets, payroll records, contracts, an electronic copy of the district's library catalog and board policies on parent complaints about human sexuality lessons, the Tribune reported.
Perez, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee that oversees the comptroller, argued the student count has nothing to do with a review of central office spending. "A Social Security number isn't required to go to school in Texas, and an alternative ID number tells you nothing about a child's immigration status," he said in his release.
