The Courier-Journal: Investigation at U of L focuses on $694,000 grant
State, local educators say they didn’t know of project
A $694,000 project grant managed by former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner is part of a criminal investigation into whether federal funds were mishandled.
Documents obtained from U of L in an open-records request show that the grant’s purpose was to create a center that would be a “unique collaborative effort” with the Kentucky Education Department and Jefferson County Public Schools, among others, and would help schools meet testing goals of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Yet officials with the Jefferson County Public Schools and the state Education Department say they know nothing about the grant, or that such a center was created.
Federal agents seized documents related to the grant and other records from U of L’s Belknap campus on June 20, and federal prosecutors said at the time that a criminal investigation was under way.
The records obtained by the newspaper do not include any of the seized documents, the university said. But they do show that $598,000 of the grant has been spent, and that much of that money went to either programs or people with whom Felner once had close ties.
Neither Felner nor his attorney, Scott C. Cox, would comment this week on the investigation or the grant.
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