Audit of D.C.TAG scholarship program shows millions of dollars unaccounted for
The popular D.C. tuition assistance program that helps city students pay for college can’t explain how millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent since 2004, according to an unreleased audit that describes weak financial controls and management problems at the city agency that administers the program.
The federally funded D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant (TAG) program is unique to the District and has become key to how thousands of families budget for college, providing as much as $10,000 a year to students who attend schools outside of the city. But the audit, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that the District’s oversight of TAG money has been riddled with shortcomings, leaving uncertainty about how much money the program should have in its accounts.
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TAG was conceived as a way to defray the cost of college for D.C. residents, who don’t have access to a strong in-state university system. Available to all D.C. students from families who have household incomes below $1 million a year, it provides as much as $50,000 over the course of college for students to attend eligible schools: public universities outside the city, private schools in the Washington region and historically black colleges.
The program has served as a powerful incentive to stay in the city for many families who might otherwise have moved to the suburbs, and more than 5,000 students a year take advantage of the tuition assistance. Since TAG’s inception in 2000, more than $317 million has gone to help