Ed. Dept. Seeks Return of Bilingual Funds.

The U.S. Department of Education is asking the Dallas Independent School District to give back $1.8 million of a federal grant for bilingual education because it claims the school district didn't spend the money on what it said it would. The Education Department had already refused to give the district the final installment — $523,500 — of the five-year, $2.6 million grant because the department concluded that the district had not achieved "substantial progress" with the grant funds. A final audit report issued by the Education Department's inspector general's office contends that the Texas district delivered only 18 percent of the approved grant "services and products" over a grant period from 1999 to 2003. The department did, however, slightly reduce the amount of money it called for the district to repay to the $1.8 million requested in the August 4 final report.