Austin ISD no longer cooperating with state review

The Austin Independent School District is saying it will no longer cooperate in the state's review of how it's using public funding. The Texas Comptroller chose AISD for an investigation into if the district has been following state law and its spending habits. Fox 7's Marco Bittner is joining us live from the Capitol right now with more on why the district is choosing to no longer participate. Marco. Well, like AISD says they were more than willing to cooperate in this review on their funding or their spending habits. But they say that the comptroller's requests were becoming too unrealistic to the point that they declined to continue working with them. But now the comptroller says they're going through with this investigation with or without AISD. Is there fraud and is there corruption going on in Austin ISD? That's a question involved in the Texas Comptroller's review of the Austin Independent School District. It all goes back to August when Governor Greg Abbott instructed the agency to review the spending of four school districts. In October, Comptroller Dan Huffines would reveal AISD had been selected for an investigation into if its spending habits aligned with state law. I blame it all on our leadership. Thinking they're going to go for four terms as governor, four terms as lieutenant governor. I mean, seriously? But in the midterms, Huffines would fall short in his race for re-election for Texas Comptroller, losing to Democrat Sarah Eckhardt. Now a little over a week after his loss, AISD says it'll no longer cooperate in his review of the district's spending. In a four-page letter sent on Friday, the district laid out multiple reasons why it would no longer participate, saying there is enough time for officials to fairly evaluate the district, questioning if the comptroller had the authority to interview over 30 AISD staff members, and claiming officials were asking for documents unrelated to the review, such as the school library catalog. The Texas taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent. Mandy Drogan is with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. She says that a review such as the one being carried out at AISD can answer crucial questions on if public funds are being used correctly. How much are they spending on outside consultants, their administration, their curriculum providers, their contractors, and who is benefiting from these expenditures? But others see the spending review as politically motivated. In a statement, the Texas AFT, one of the state's largest educator unions, said Comptroller Huffines lost his bid for re-election to Eckhart last week. And this waste of scarce resources is top of the list of reasons why. Sarah Eckhardt has said as comptroller she would limit the extent of the district evaluations, but for now, it's out of her hands. With his remaining time in office, Huffines says the evaluation of AISD will be published by the end of the year, just in time for the Texas legislature to review. Saying in a statement, I have news for the leadership of AISD. You can run, but you can't hide. Our review will continue, and a full report will be published with or without your cooperation. Texas Comptroller officials were set to visit AISD offices on Monday, but the district says it did not make itself available for that meeting, and no officials showed up. Alec? Marco, this week the Texas Education Agency released its financial accountability ratings. Do we know what AISD scored on that? Yeah, those ratings scored districts on their financial management, and in this latest discovery, it was revealed that AISD scored a B, which is above standard achievement. Alec?