New Mexico monitors school funds in ex-leader’s fraud case

By CEDAR ATTANASIO
Associated Press / Report for America

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico education officials are insisting on stricter oversight of a $1 million sliver of federal education funding at the center of a criminal probe in Albuquerque. Prosecutors say the district’s career technical education department directed $5 million in contracts to companies connected to former coordinator and now-resigned Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton. She is facing criminal fraud charges. The charges also raise questions around how the state’s largest school district is handling federal money. State officials are demanding the district use a third-party auditor and train staff on a new set of fraud and waste safeguards before getting new funds this year.