accountability and the leader essay

Accountability in Leadership: Building Trust and Results

• Accountability in leadership fosters a culture of trust and responsibility, essential for organizational success.

Essential Insights

• Accountable leaders set clear expectations and provide constructive feedback, enhancing team performance.
• Demonstrating personal accountability encourages team members to own their actions and contribute to team goals.
• Leadership accountability involves accepting responsibility for outcomes, both good and bad, to model integrity.
• Building a culture of accountability within teams and organizations starts with leaders who lead by example.

Quotes About Accountability in Leadership

• "Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to results." - John G. Miller, QBQ! The Question Behind the Question
• "Leaders inspire accountability through their ability to accept responsibility before they place blame." - Courtney Lynch
• "A culture of accountability makes a good organization great and a great organization unstoppable." - Henry Evans

Introduction

The concept of accountability in leadership is pivotal to the success and resilience of any organization. At its core, it embodies the responsibility leaders have not only to their roles but also to their teams, stakeholders, and the organizational vision. This article aims to dissect the essence of accountability in leadership, exploring its implications, benefits, and the practical steps leaders can take to embed this critical value into the fabric of their leadership style. By fostering a culture of accountability, leaders can drive higher levels of employee engagement and, performance, and overall organizational health. Here, we delve into why accountability is a cornerstone of effective leadership and how it can transform challenges into opportunities for growth and success.

Background Information

Definition of Accountability in Leadership Accountability in leadership refers to the commitment of leaders to take responsibility for their actions, decisions, and the performance of their team. It involves being answerable for the outcomes resulting from those actions and decisions, as well as commitments such as the obligation to report, explain, and be responsible for the resulting consequences.

Importance of Accountability Accountability is crucial in leadership as it underpins trust, integrity, and performance. It ensures that leaders are committed to their roles and responsibilities, making transparent decisions that align with the company's values and goals. When leaders demonstrate accountability, they set a powerful example for their team, promoting a sense of ownership, engagement, and responsibility among all members.

Accountability in Leadership

Accountability in leadership is a multifaceted concept that intertwines with various aspects of organizational management and personal development. It goes beyond the mere acknowledgment of responsibilities; it is about actively embracing the impact of one's decisions and actions on the team and the organization at large. This section explores the core elements of leadership accountability, its significance in leadership development, and its implementation in fostering a culture of trust, integrity, and high performance.

Setting Clear Expectations One of the primary roles of an accountable leader is to set clear, achievable expectations for their team. Clear expectations provide a roadmap for success, ensuring that every team member understands their roles, responsibilities, and the standards to which they are held. This clarity reduces ambiguity, focuses efforts, and aligns the team's work with the organization's objectives.

Providing Constructive Feedback Feedback is a critical tool in the accountability framework of effective leaders. Accountable leaders provide timely, constructive feedback that not only acknowledges achievements but also addresses areas needing improvement. This feedback loop encourages continuous learning and growth, fostering a proactive approach to problem-solving and innovation.

Embracing Personal Accountability At the heart of leadership accountability is personal accountability. Leaders who demonstrate accountability for their actions inspire their teams to do the same. This involves owning both successes and failures, learning from mistakes, and viewing challenges as opportunities for growth. Personal accountability is infectious, cultivating a team environment where each member feels responsible for contributing to the team's success.

Building a Culture of Accountability Creating a culture of accountability within an organization starts at the top. Leaders who hold themselves accountable set the tone for the entire team. This culture is characterized by open communication, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to achieving common goals. In such an environment, team members feel valued and empowered to take initiative, knowing that their contributions are integral to the team's success.

Leading by Example The most powerful way leaders can promote accountability is by leading by example. When leaders consistently demonstrate accountability in their actions, decisions, and interactions, they model the behavior they expect from their team. This not only reinforces the importance of accountability to employees, but also builds trust and respect, essential ingredients for a cohesive and high-performing team.

Application Ideas for Accountability in Leadership

Developing and fostering accountability within a leadership context requires deliberate actions and practices. This section outlines actionable strategies and real-world scenarios to illustrate how leaders can effectively demonstrate accountability, inspire their teams, and cultivate a culture of personal responsibility and ownership.

Addressing Performance Issues An accountable leader notices a team member struggling to meet project deadlines. Instead of assigning blame, the leader meets with the team member to understand the challenges they are facing. Together, they develop a plan that includes additional support and resources, setting clear, achievable milestones to track progress. This approach demonstrates the leader's commitment to the team member's success and the overall project, reinforcing the value of accountability and support.

Navigating Project Setbacks A project led by an accountable leader encounters unexpected setbacks, resulting in missed deadlines and deliverables. The leader convenes a team meeting to openly discuss the challenges, owning up to any leadership oversights and encouraging team members to share their insights and solutions. This collective problem-solving session fosters a sense of shared responsibility and reinforces the principle that accountability is not about assigning blame but about finding solutions and moving forward together.

Celebrating Team Achievements When a team successfully completes a significant project, an accountable leader ensures that the team's efforts are recognized and celebrated. The leader highlights individual and team contributions, linking their achievements to the organization's broader goals. This recognition not only rewards accountability but also motivates the team to maintain high standards of performance and responsibility.

Implementing Feedback for Improvement After receiving constructive feedback from team members during a feedback session, an accountable leader takes immediate action to address the concerns raised. This may involve adjusting team processes, enhancing communication channels, or providing additional training. By acting on feedback, the leader demonstrates that accountability is a two-way street, valuing and responding to the team's input.

Leading through Change During organizational changes, an accountable leader communicates transparently with the team about the reasons for the changes, the expected outcomes, and how the team can contribute to the transition. The leader remains open to questions and concerns, providing reassurance and support. This approach ensures that the team feels involved and accountable for contributing to the success of the change initiative.

Reflection Questions

• How can I set clearer expectations for my team to enhance accountability?
• What steps can I take to ensure I am accountable for my actions and decisions as a leader?
• How can I create a safer environment for my team to take accountability for their mistakes and learn from them?
• In what ways can I use constructive feedback to promote a culture of accountability within my team?
• How can I encourage my team members to hold each other accountable in a supportive and positive way?
• What can I do to demonstrate personal accountability and lead by example more effectively?
• How can we as a team celebrate accountability and recognize it as a key component of our success?

Accountability in leadership is not just a set of practices but a mindset that distinguishes exceptional leaders from the rest. It involves a commitment to transparency, responsibility, and continuous improvement, both at a personal and organizational level. By embracing accountability, leaders can cultivate a culture of trust, engagement, and high performance, where every team member feels valued and empowered to contribute to the organization's success. Remember, in the realm of leadership, accountability is the bridge between aspirations and achievements. Let us hold ourselves and our own teams accountable to the highest standards of accountability, for it is in this commitment that the true essence of leadership is realized.

Further Learning

Accountability in leadership is a broad topic with many layers to explore. Beyond the core principles discussed in this article, leaders looking to deepen their understanding and practice of accountability can consider the following areas for further learning:

• Emotional Intelligence : Understanding and managing one's emotions and those of others can greatly enhance a leader's ability to foster accountability. Emotional intelligence facilitates effective communication, empathy, and conflict resolution, all crucial for a culture of accountability.
• Strategic Thinking : Developing strategic thinking skills can help leaders better align team goals with organizational objectives, enhancing accountability by ensuring that everyone is working towards a common purpose.
• Change Management : Effective change management involves guiding and supporting teams through transitions. Leaders skilled in change management can maintain accountability by keeping teams focused and engaged, even in times of uncertainty.

Related Topics

• Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
• Strategic Leadership and Planning
• Change Management for Leaders
• Building High-Performing Teams
• Conflict Resolution and Management

Recommended Reading

Click on the link to purchase the books

• The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability by Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman
• The Accountability Manifesto: How Accountability Helps You Stick to Goals by Sam Silverstein
• QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life by John G. Miller

FAQs about Accountability in Leadership

What is accountability in leadership?

Accountability in leadership refers to the willingness of leaders to take responsibility for their actions and decisions, ensuring they align with the organization's goals and values. It involves owning both successes and failures and being transparent about the outcomes.

Why is accountability important in leadership?

Accountability is crucial in leadership as it builds trust, fosters a positive company culture, enhances team performance, and ensures that leaders understand how and team members are committed to achieving organizational goals.

How can leaders demonstrate accountability?

Leaders can demonstrate accountability by using team meetings, setting clear expectations, providing constructive feedback, owning their actions and decisions, leading by example, and creating a culture where everyone feels responsible for the team's success.

How does accountability affect team performance?

Accountability positively impacts team performance by clarifying roles and responsibilities, encouraging ownership of tasks, building accountability, fostering a sense of commitment, and promoting a culture of continuous improvement and mutual support.

How can a culture of accountability be built within a team or organization?

A culture of accountability can be built by encouraging open and honest communication, setting clear goals and expectations, recognizing and rewarding accountability, and ensuring that leaders consistently model accountable behavior.

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103 Accountability Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Accountability is a fundamental aspect of personal and professional growth. Whether you are a student, employee, or leader, understanding the importance of accountability is crucial for success. Writing an essay on accountability allows you to explore various aspects of this concept and its implications. To help you get started, here are 103 accountability essay topic ideas and examples:

• The importance of personal accountability in achieving goals.
• How does accountability contribute to ethical decision-making?
• Exploring the relationship between accountability and trust.
• The role of accountability in building strong teams.
• Accountability and its impact on workplace productivity.
• Analyzing the consequences of a lack of accountability in an organization.
• How can leaders foster a culture of accountability within their teams?
• The connection between accountability and effective communication.
• The impact of accountability on individual and organizational performance.
• The influence of accountability on employee morale and job satisfaction.
• Exploring the accountability of leaders in times of crisis.
• How does accountability contribute to personal growth and development?
• The role of accountability in maintaining work-life balance.
• Analyzing the relationship between accountability and self-discipline.
• The impact of accountability on decision-making processes.
• The connection between accountability and resilience in challenging situations.
• The role of accountability in preventing and addressing workplace conflicts.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in educational institutions.
• The influence of accountability on student motivation and academic performance.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of social media and online behavior.
• The role of accountability in promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
• The impact of accountability on ethical leadership.
• Exploring the connection between accountability and organizational culture.
• The consequences of a lack of accountability in government institutions.
• The influence of accountability on public trust in political leaders.
• Analyzing the role of accountability in healthcare systems.
• The connection between accountability and patient safety.
• The impact of accountability on environmental sustainability.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in the criminal justice system.
• The role of accountability in promoting transparency and reducing corruption.
• The influence of accountability on financial management and reporting.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of international relations and diplomacy.
• The connection between accountability and human rights protection.
• The impact of accountability on peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in the media industry.
• The role of accountability in promoting fair and unbiased journalism.
• The influence of accountability on corporate social responsibility.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of sports and athletics.
• The connection between accountability and fair play.
• The impact of accountability on sportsmanship and athlete behavior.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in the education system.
• The role of accountability in improving teacher-student relationships.
• The influence of accountability on educational policies and reforms.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of parenting and family dynamics.
• The connection between accountability and effective parenting strategies.
• The impact of accountability on children's behavior and character development.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in personal relationships.
• The role of accountability in fostering trust and mutual respect.
• The influence of accountability on relationship satisfaction and longevity.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of addiction recovery.
• The connection between accountability and successful rehabilitation.
• The impact of accountability on relapse prevention.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in the military.
• The role of accountability in promoting discipline and unit cohesion.
• The influence of accountability on military readiness and effectiveness.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of volunteer organizations and charity work.
• The connection between accountability and impactful social change.
• The impact of accountability on volunteer motivation and commitment.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in religious institutions.
• The role of accountability in maintaining ethical conduct within religious communities.
• The influence of accountability on religious leadership and followership.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of technology and cybersecurity.
• The connection between accountability and data privacy protection.
• The impact of accountability on combating cybercrime and online threats.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in the entertainment industry.
• The role of accountability in promoting diversity and representation in media.
• The influence of accountability on ethical content creation and consumption.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of entrepreneurship and business startups.
• The connection between accountability and entrepreneurial success.
• The impact of accountability on business ethics and sustainability.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in the tourism industry.
• The role of accountability in promoting responsible travel and cultural preservation.
• The influence of accountability on sustainable tourism practices.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of scientific research and innovation.
• The connection between accountability and research integrity.
• The impact of accountability on scientific discoveries and advancements.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in social welfare programs.
• The role of accountability in ensuring fair distribution of resources.
• The influence of accountability on poverty alleviation and social justice.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of humanitarian aid and disaster relief efforts.
• The connection between accountability and effective emergency response.
• The impact of accountability on fostering resilient communities.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in the transportation industry.
• The role of accountability in promoting road safety and reducing accidents.
• The influence of accountability on sustainable transportation practices.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of animal welfare and conservation.
• The connection between accountability and ethical treatment of animals.
• The impact of accountability on wildlife conservation efforts.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in food production and distribution.
• The role of accountability in ensuring food safety and quality standards.
• The influence of accountability on sustainable farming practices.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of mental health care and support.
• The connection between accountability and destigmatizing mental health issues.
• The impact of accountability on access to mental health services.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in urban planning and development.
• The role of accountability in creating sustainable and livable cities.
• The influence of accountability on community engagement and participation.
• Analyzing accountability in the context of cultural preservation and heritage protection.
• The connection between accountability and safeguarding cultural diversity.
• The impact of accountability on promoting inclusive cultural practices.
• Exploring the consequences of a lack of accountability in international aid and development.
• The role of accountability in ensuring effective allocation of resources in developing countries.
• The influence of accountability on sustainable development goals.

These 103 accountability essay topic ideas cover a wide range of disciplines and industries, allowing you to approach the concept of accountability from different angles. Whether you are writing an essay for academic purposes or personal reflection, these topics will provide you with a solid foundation to explore this important subject. Remember to choose a topic that interests you and aligns with your objectives, as this will make the writing process more enjoyable and meaningful.

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Leadership Accountability: What It Looks Like, Why It Matters

Published: Aug 22, 2023 By Bob Helbig

A good leader sets clear goals, follows through on promises and cultivates a culture of responsibility within an organization. Leaders who acknowledge errors with humility and transparency earn their team members’ and stakeholders’ trust and respect, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and long-term success.

Prioritizing accountability is one of the  signs of a good leader  because it drives better results and enhances  employee engagement  and overall company performance.

Accountability in  leadership impacts company culture . Leaders who exemplify accountability set the foundation for a positive company culture, where responsibility and commitment are valued, and mistakes are acknowledged with transparency.

What does leadership accountability look like? Here are some signs:

Establishes what accountability means to the team: A leader’s accountability to team members builds trust and respect, as it shows they value the contributions and well-being of each individual. By being accountable to employees, a leader demonstrates empathy and actively listens to their concerns, enabling them to address challenges and implement necessary improvements. This boosts morale and motivation, leading to increased productivity and loyalty.

Builds relationships with the team: Leaders are responsible for facilitating open communication and encouraging a supportive work environment, which creates opportunities for team members to interact, exchange ideas, and share their expertise. Accountability in management also means promoting teamwork and interdependence, ensuring everyone’s contributions are valued and recognized. Through team-building activities, regular meetings, and inclusive decision-making processes, leaders create a sense of belonging and purpose, reinforcing that the team’s success is a collective effort. As trust grows among team members, they become more willing to take risks, offer feedback, and seek assistance, leading to improved problem-solving and increased productivity. 

Takes responsibility for mistakes: Taking responsibility and owning up to mistakes is a hallmark of accountability in leadership. A leader who faces challenges and seeks solutions demonstrates resilience and a commitment to growth. On the other hand, avoiding accountability is a  sign you’re a bad leader , as it erodes trust and undermines the team’s confidence in their direction. By taking ownership of mistakes and actively working on remedies, a leader sets an example of integrity and fosters a culture where learning from failures is embraced. This approach leads to continuous improvement and strengthens the bond between a leader and their team, empowering everyone to overcome obstacles and achieve success collaboratively.

Believes in transparency: Transparency can take various forms, but it is based on open sharing of information. For leaders, transparency is essential as it boosts motivation, enhances decision-making and creates a positive work environment. When employees understand their contribution to the bigger picture and see leaders being honest and open, trust and loyalty flourish, leading to improved collaboration and overall success.

Gathers employee feedback: To be held accountable by employees, leaders must embrace employee feedback and use it to find solutions and drive positive change. By actively seeking input and listening to their perspectives, leaders foster a culture of trust and empowerment.  Employee engagement surveys  effectively capture confidential feedback, providing valuable insights into the organization’s strengths and areas for improvement. A leader who values employee feedback demonstrates a commitment to continuous growth and gains a deeper understanding of the team’s needs, aspirations, and concerns, enabling them to make informed decisions that lead to a more engaged and motivated workforce.

Bob Helbig is media partnerships director at Energage, a Philadelphia-based employee survey firm. Energage is The Washington Post’s survey partner for Top Workplaces.

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Essay on Accountability

In a world brimming with complexities and challenges, accountability stands as a fundamental principle guiding individual actions and societal progress. This essay delves into the essence of accountability, its significance in various spheres of life, and its pivotal role in fostering a responsible and progressive society.

Accountability

Accountability refers to the obligation of an individual or organization to account for its activities, accept responsibility for them, and disclose the results in a transparent manner. It involves being answerable to someone for something you have done or, sometimes more importantly, have failed to do.

The Dimensions of Accountability

• Personal Accountability : This involves taking responsibility for one’s actions, decisions, and their consequences. It’s about owning up to mistakes and learning from them.
• Professional Accountability : In the workplace, it entails fulfilling one’s duties to the best of one’s ability and being answerable for the outcomes.
• Social Accountability : This extends to how actions and decisions impact society and the environment, emphasizing the need for ethical and sustainable practices.

The Importance of Accountability

• Trust Building : Accountability fosters trust in relationships, whether personal, professional, or societal. When individuals and institutions are accountable, they earn the trust of those they interact with or serve.
• Promotes Ethical Behavior : It encourages individuals and organizations to act ethically and responsibly.
• Enhances Performance : In a professional context, accountability leads to better performance, as individuals understand their roles and the expectations associated with them.
• Facilitates Learning and Improvement : Recognizing and owning up to mistakes is a learning process that fosters personal and professional growth.
• Strengthens Democracy : In governance, accountability is crucial for a healthy, functioning democracy. It ensures that public officials and entities are serving the interests of their constituents.

The Benefits of Accountability

• Builds Trust : When people are accountable, they build trust with colleagues, friends, and family, which is foundational for healthy relationships and effective teamwork.
• Improves Performance : Accountability drives individuals to perform better. Knowing that one’s actions are observed and evaluated encourages a higher standard of work.
• Promotes Responsibility : It instills a sense of responsibility, ensuring that tasks are completed efficiently and effectively.
• Enhances Decision-Making : Being accountable means considering the broader impact of one’s decisions, leading to more thoughtful and responsible choices.
• Fosters Learning and Growth : By owning up to mistakes and learning from them, individuals and organizations grow and improve.

Accountability in Different Spheres of Life

In education.

• Students : They are accountable for their learning – attending classes, completing assignments, and actively engaging in the educational process.
• Educators : Teachers and administrators are accountable for providing quality education and fostering an environment conducive to learning.

In the Workplace

• Employees : They are responsible for fulfilling their job responsibilities and contributing to organizational goals.
• Employers : They must create a safe, equitable workplace and ensure the well-being of their employees.

In Governance

• Government Officials : They are accountable to the public, ensuring transparent, efficient, and ethical governance.
• Citizens : As part of a democratic society, citizens are accountable for participating in the democratic process, including voting and civic engagement.

The Challenge of Upholding Accountability

Upholding accountability is not without challenges. These include a lack of transparency, inadequate systems for monitoring and evaluation, cultural barriers, and sometimes, a lack of will or understanding of its importance.

Steps to Foster Accountability

• Clear Expectations : Whether it’s in a personal, professional, or public domain, setting clear expectations is the first step towards accountability.
• Transparent Communication : Open and honest communication encourages a culture of accountability.
• Effective Systems for Monitoring and Evaluation : Regularly assessing and reviewing actions and decisions help in maintaining accountability.
• Education and Training : Teaching the importance of accountability from an early age fosters a culture where it is valued and practiced.
• Reward and Recognition : Acknowledging and rewarding accountable behavior reinforces its importance.

Personal Accountability: The Foundation

Accountability starts with the individual. It’s about taking responsibility for one’s actions and their impact on others. It involves honesty, integrity, and sometimes, the courage to stand up and admit to mistakes.

The Role of Accountability in Leadership

In leadership, accountability is crucial for gaining the respect and trust of team members. It involves:

• Setting Clear Expectations : Leaders must clearly articulate goals and standards.
• Leading by Example : Demonstrating accountability in their actions sets a tone for the team.
• Providing Feedback and Support : Regular feedback helps team members understand how they can improve and grow.

In conclusion, Accountability is the linchpin of a well-functioning society. It builds trust, fosters ethical behavior, drives performance, and underpins democratic institutions. As the world grapples with various challenges, the need for accountability across all sectors and at all levels – personal, professional, and political – has never been more critical. For students participating in essay competitions, exploring the concept of accountability offers an opportunity to reflect on its fundamental role in shaping a just, responsible, and progressive society.

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Let The Sunshine In

The Sunshine Blog: Read The Latest Bizarre Motion In The Keith Kaneshiro Bribery Case. Or Some Of It Anyway

Short takes, outtakes, our takes and other stuff you should know about public information, government accountability and ethical leadership in Hawaii.

By The Sunshine Editorial Board

April 8, 2024 · 6 min read

About the Author

The Sunshine Editorial Board

The members of Civil Beat’s editorial board focused on ‘Let The Sunshine In’ are Patti Epler, Chad Blair, John Hill. Matthew Leonard and Richard Wiens.

Secrecy gone awry: Just when you thought the bribery and corruption case involving former Honolulu prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro and contractor Dennis Mitsunaga couldn’t get any weirder — it’s hard to top an alleged hitman, after all — the federal prosecutors keep filing the most tantalizing documents.

Too bad they’re heavily redacted.

And that has prompted the Public First Law Center to ask the court to unseal a number of the documents that the federal judge overseeing the case has allowed to be filed in secret, or seriously blacked out.

A Special Commentary Project

The Blog always thought that criminal trials were supposed to be conducted in open court. You know, so the government can’t lock you up and throw away the key without your fellow citizens knowing what was going on.

But there has been a lot of secret stuff going on in the Kaneshiro case — sealed filings, hearings behind closed doors — much of it apparently related to whether defendant Sheri Tanaka hired a hitman to knock off the previous federal judge in the case, J. Michael Seabright, who mysteriously recused himself, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat, the lead prosecutor in the case.

Tanaka says the money she apparently paid to an alleged bad guy was actually part of an extortion scheme in which she was the victim and had to pay him off to keep him from hurting her family.

FBI agents are apparently still investigating all that and Tanaka remains free on bail.

Meanwhile, last week the feds filed another motion suggesting Tanaka not only lied to a federal judge but also has been intimidating at least one witness. Much of it is, wait for it, blacked out.

But the unredacted intro is most intriguing. (By the way, The Blog loves the line about striking down two birds with “one mendacious stone.”)

Prosecutors say they only learned about this alleged intimidation on March 27. According to the motion:

“A witness is expected to testify that soon upon learning about her grand jury appearance, Tanaka picked her up, drove her out of the city to an unfamiliar location in the hills, and instructed her to exit the car without her cell phone. There, on the side of the road, Tanaka began speaking to the witness about the grand jury investigation. After the witness objected and told Tanaka she did not wish to continue the conversation, Tanaka’s demeanor changed. Tanaka became very serious and began instructing the witness what to say to the grand jury about political contributions.”

The unredacted version of the feds’ latest Tanaka motion is just one of a half-dozen documents the law center is seeking to bring into the proverbial light of day. Basically, the law center says, neither the government, defendants nor the judge have given a good reason why these records need to be sealed.

Read the law center’s motion, filed Friday, here:

This agency doesn’t mess around: The Honolulu Medical Examiner gets a lot of public records requests, and not just from the media. Anyone can go online and request an autopsy report simply by filling out a basic form and paying $5. The ME’s office is one of the more enlightened when it comes to understanding Hawaii’s public records law and it generally wastes no time in releasing public records when asked.

And that’s just what happened a couple weeks ago when attorneys for the family of Angus Mitchell, the heir to the Paul Mitchell hair product empire, went to court to try to keep the ME from releasing an autopsy report on Mitchell.

The 53-year-old co-owner of John Paul Mitchell Systems was found dead in the swimming pool at his Diamond Head home early on the morning of Jan. 3. Police were called, the ME got the body, did an autopsy and notified the family in March that it had gotten media requests for the report and was about to release it, according to a lawsuit that the family filed March 28.

The lawsuit sought to prevent the ME from releasing the autopsy report on the grounds that it violated his and his family’s privacy and it contained information that was unrelated to Mitchell’s death. The motion seeking the temporary restraining order likens the case to media requests following the death of President John F. Kennedy and the Challenger space shuttle astronauts, among others.

The Public First Law Center wasted no time filing an amicus motion with the court, stating the obvious:

“Vague references to medical privacy do not justify withholding autopsy reports. That issue has been well-settled for decades, and decedent’s wealth, social status, and philanthropy as described in the motion do not justify special treatment,” executive director Brian Black wrote.

The 27-page filing goes on to detail why autopsy reports as well as toxicology information are public in Hawaii. You can read the original complaint, the Mitchell family’s motion and Black’s arguments about the public’s right to know on the law center’s website .

As it turns out, all of this became a moot point and the judge ultimately denied everybody’s motions. By the time Mitchell’s attorneys filed their case the ME had released the report. The Blog has no idea to whom because while the ME turned over the autopsy report upon receiving The Blog’s $5, the office still hasn’t revealed what public records requests it had received as The Blog asked for in a public records request March 28.

The Blog didn’t find any news story mentioning the autopsy report or its findings in a Google search. There were plenty of news reports soon after he died, though, and a number of TikTok video tributes . And reports of an Instagram video Mitchell apparently posted the night before his death where he was singing and having fun with friends and family at the house.

That particular video is no longer available on his Instagram page. But it might speak to what the autopsy report found: the cause of death was drowning and contributing factors included excessive levels of cocaine and alcohol.

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Guest Essay

Trump’s Backers Are Determined Not to Blow It This Time Around

By Thomas B. Edsall

Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C., on politics, demographics and inequality.

In a rare display of unity, more than 100 conservative tax-exempt organizations have joined forces in support of Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda, forming a $2 billion-plus political machine.

Together, these organizations are constructing a detailed postelection agenda, lining up prospective appointees and backing Trump in his legal battles.

Most of the work performed by these nonprofit groups is conducted behind closed doors. Unlike traditional political organizations, these groups do not disclose their donors and must reveal only minimal information on expenditures. In many cases, even this minimal information will not be available until after the 2024 election.

Nonprofits like these are able to maintain a cloak of secrecy by positioning themselves as charitable organizations under section 501(c)(3 ) of the tax code or as social welfare organizations under section 501(c)(4 ).

Not only are these tax-exempt organizations attractive to large contributors who want to keep their roles secret; 501(c)(3) groups have an added benefit: Donors can deduct their gifts from their taxable incomes.

The benefits don’t end there. The minimal reporting requirements imposed on political nonprofits lend themselves to self-dealing, particularly the payment of high salaries and consulting fees, and the award of contracts to for-profit companies owned by executives of the charitable groups.

“The growth of these groups is largely flying under the radar,” Sean Westwood , a political scientist at Dartmouth, wrote by email in response to my inquiry. “This level of coordination is unprecedented.”

Theda Skocpol , a professor of government and sociology at Harvard, replying by email to my inquiry, wrote, “These are detailed plans to take full control of various federal departments and agencies from the very start and to use every power available to implement radical ethnonationalist regulations and action plans.”

This activity, Skocpol continued, amounts to a “full prep for an authoritarian takeover, buttressed by the control Trump and Trumpists now have over the G.O.P. and its apparatuses.”

In this drive by the right to shape policy, should Trump win, there are basically three power centers.

The first is made up of groups pieced together by Leonard Leo , a co-chairman of the Federalist Society, renowned for his role in the conservative takeover of the Supreme Court and of many key posts in the federal and state judiciaries.

If cash is the measure, Leo is the heavyweight champion. Two years ago, my Times colleagues Kenneth P. Vogel and Shane Goldmacher disclosed that a little-known Chicago billionaire, Barre Seid , who made his fortune manufacturing electronic equipment, turned $1.6 billion over to the Marble Freedom Trust , a tax-exempt organization created by Leo in 2021, helping to turn it into a powerhouse.

The second nexus of right-wing tax-exempt groups is the alliance clustered on Capitol Hill around the intersection of Third Street Southeast and Independence Avenue — offices and townhouses that fashion themselves as Patriots’ Row .

Former Trump campaign aides, lawyers and executive appointees, including Mark Meadows , Stephen Miller , Edward Corrigan and Cleta Mitchell , run these organizations. After Trump was defeated in 2020, the cash flow to these groups surged.

The third center is coordinated by the Heritage Foundation , which, under the leadership of Kevin D. Roberts , who assumed its presidency in 2021, has become a committed ally of the MAGA movement.

Heritage, in turn, has created Project 2025 in preparation for a potential Trump victory in November. In a statement of purpose, the project declared:

It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on Day 1 of the next conservative administration.

There are more than 100 members of Project 2025, and they include not only most of the Patriots’ Row groups but also much of the Christian right and the anti-abortion movement.

In the view of Lawrence Rosenthal , the chairman and founder of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, the convergence of so many conservative organizations leading up to the 2024 election marks a reconciliation, albeit partial, between the two major wings of the Republican Party: the more traditional market fundamentalists and the populist nationalists.

“In 2024,” Rosenthal wrote by email,

the free-market fundamentalists are making their peace on a more basic level than simply tax cuts. Their historic long-term goal — rolling back the federal government to pre-New Deal levels — corresponds to the nationalists’ goal of “deconstruction of the administrative state.” This is what the likes of the now thoroughly MAGA-fied Heritage Foundation is putting together. Recasting the administrative state as the “deep state,” a veritable launchpad for conspiracy-mongering innuendo, easily brings the populists along for the ride despite a “What’s the Matter With Kansas”-like abandonment of their own economic interests on the part of a sector of the population particularly dependent on the range of targets like Social Security and Medicare that the administrative-state deconstructors have in their sights. In return the populists are seeing avatars of Christian nationalism in unprecedented roles of political power — to wit, the current speaker of the House.

The populist-nationalist wing has an agenda that “goes beyond what the free-market fundamentalists have had in mind,” Rosenthal continued:

The model here is by now explicitly Orbanism in Hungary — what Viktor Orban personally dubbed “illiberal democracy.” By now, MAGA at all levels — CPAC, media, Congress, Trump himself — has explicitly embraced Orban. Illiberal regimes claim legitimacy through elections but systematically curtail civil liberties and checks and balances, structurally recasting political institutions so as to make their being voted out of office almost unrealizable.

The centerpiece of Leo’s empire of right-wing groups is the Marble Freedom Trust. The trust described its mission in a 2022 report to the I.R.S.: “To maintain and expand human freedom consistent with the values and ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.”

In 2016, according to an April 2023 I.R.S. complaint against Leo filed by the Campaign for Accountability , a liberal reform advocacy group, Leo created a consulting company, BH Group, and in 2020 acquired a major ownership interest in CRC Advisors . Both are for-profit entities based in Virginia.

The Campaign for Accountability’s complaint alleges that “Leo-affiliated nonprofits” paid BH Group and CRC Advisors a total of $50.3 million from 2016 to 2020. During this period, according to the complaint, Leo’s lifestyle changed:

In August 2018, he paid off the 30-year mortgage on the McLean, Va., home, most of which was still outstanding on the payoff date. Later that same year, Leonard Leo bought a $3.3 million summer home with 11 bedrooms in Mount Desert, an affluent seaside village on the coast of Maine, using, in part, a 20-year mortgage of $2,310,000. Leonard Leo paid off the entire balance of that mortgage just one year later in July 2019. In September 2021, Leonard Leo bought a second home in Mount Desert for $1.65 million.

The complaint was based partly on a March 2023 Politico story by Heidi Przybyla. She wrote that her “investigation, based on dozens of financial, property and public records dating from 2000 to 2021, found that Leo’s lifestyle took a lavish turn beginning in 2016,” citing Leo’s purchases of the Maine properties, along with “four new cars, private school tuition for his children, hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to Catholic causes and a wine locker at Morton’s Steakhouse.”

In October 2023, Przybyla disclosed (also in Politico ) that Leo was refusing to cooperate with an investigation by Brian Schwalb , the attorney general for the District of Columbia, “for potentially misusing nonprofit tax laws for personal enrichment.”

In a study covering more recent data , Accountable US , another liberal reform group, reported that from 2020, when Leo acquired a share of CRC Advisors, to 2022, seven “groups with immediate ties to Leo’s network have made payments totaling at least $69.77 million to CRC Advisors.”

Those figures were confirmed by Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum , who reported that “the sums paid to CRC Advisors by seven nonprofit groups have doubled since Leo came aboard as co-owner and chairman in 2020.”

Leo defended the payments, telling Bloomberg that criticism of the money flowing to CRC Advisors is “baseless” and that CRC performs high-quality work. “CRC Advisors employs nearly 100 best-in-class professionals that put its clients’ money to work,” he told Bloomberg.

In the drive to set the stage for a future Trump administration, the second conservative power center is dominated by the Conservative Partnership Institute , which coordinates its own pro-Trump network.

From 2018 to 2020, the Conservative Partnership was a minor player in Washington’s right-wing community. In that period, according to its 990 report to the I.R.S., its revenues totaled $16.9 million. In the next two years, donations shot up to $80.7 million.

Seven executives at the partnership in 2022 made in excess of $300,000 a year, topped by Meadows, Trump’s last White House chief of staff, whose annual compensation at the Conservative Partnership totaled $889,687 in 2022.

The Conservative Partnership and allied groups do not disclose donors, and none of the data on how much they raised and spent in 2023 and 2024 — or the identities of grant recipients — will be available before Nov. 5, 2024, Election Day.

The Conservative Partnership, like many of its sister groups, filed its 990 reports to the I.R.S. for 2020, 2021 and 2022 on Nov. 15 of each following year. If that pattern continues, its reports covering 2023 and 2024 will not be filed until Nov. 15 of the next year.

The partnership lists its address as 300 Independence Avenue Southeast in Washington, a three-story office building on Patriots’ Row that was originally the German-American Building Association.

Groups using the same mailing address include the Center for Renewing America (“God, country and community are at the heart of this agenda”), the Election Integrity Network (“Conservative leaders, organizations, public officials and citizens dedicated to securing the legality of every American vote”), Compass Legal Group , American Creative Network (“We will redefine the future of media-related conservative collaboration”), the American Accountability Foundation (“Exposing the truth behind the people and policies of the Biden administration that threaten the freedoms of the American people”), America First Legal (“Fighting back against lawless executive actions and the radical left”), Citizens for Renewing America and Citizens for Sanity (“To defeat ‘wokeism’ and anti-critical-thinking ideologies that have permeated every sector of our country”).

Since it was formed in 2020, Stephen Miller’s America First Legal foundation has been a case study in rapid growth. In its first year, it raised $6.4 million. In 2021 this rose to $44.4 million and to $50.8 million in 2022.

America First lawyers wrote two of the amicus briefs arguing to the Supreme Court that Trump should be restored to Colorado’s ballot . In one of the briefs , America First defended Trump’s actions and language on Jan. 6, 2021:

President Trump did not “engage in” insurrection. To engage in something is to take an active, personal role in it. Comparisons in modern language abound. When news emerges that nations have “engaged in military exercises,” one expects to read that “ships and planes” have been deployed, not tweets or press releases. Similarly, if someone has been described as “engaging in violence,” one expects that the person being spoken about has himself used force on another — not that he has issued some taunt about force undertaken by a third party. Engaging in a matter and remarking publicly about it are not the same, even with matters as weighty as wars or insurrections.

While the Heritage Foundation had relatively modest revenues of $95.1 million in 2022, according to its I.R.S. filing , its Project 2025 has become an anchor of the MAGA movement.

Trump has said he does not feel bound to accept all of the Project 2025 proposals, but the weight of institutional support from the right and Trump’s lack of interest in detailed planning suggest that those proposals may well shape much of the agenda in the event of a Trump victory.

The authors of Project 2025 want to avoid a repetition of 2017, when Trump took office with scant planning and little notion of who should be appointed to key positions.

Spencer Chretien , an associate director of Project 2025, put this concern delicately in a January 2023 essay published by The American Conservative , pointedly avoiding any criticism of Trump:

In November 2016, American conservatives stood on the verge of greatness. The election of Donald Trump to the presidency was a triumph that offered the best chance to reverse the left’s incessant march of progress for its own sake. Many of the best accomplishments, though, happened only in the last year of the Trump administration, after our political appointees had finally figured out the policies and process of different agencies, and after the right personnel were finally in place.

One function of the project is to put as much ideological muscle as possible behind Trump to ensure that if he wins the White House again, he does not wander afield.

From the vantage point of the right, that muscle is impressive, ranging from Oren Cass’s populist American Compass to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America , from the tradition-minded American Conservative to the Independent Women’s Forum .

In the foreword to the project’s nearly 1,000-page description of its 2025 agenda, “ Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise ,” Roberts, the president of Heritage, wrote:

This book is the work of the entire conservative movement. As such, the authors express consensus recommendations already forged, especially along four broad fronts that will decide America’s future: 1. Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children. 2. Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people. 3. Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders and bounty against global threats. 4. Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely — what our Constitution calls “the blessings of liberty.”

Perhaps the most impressive part of Project 2025 is the detailed and ideologically infused discussion of virtually every federal department and agency, all guided by the goal of instituting conservative policies.

Take the 53-page chapter, including 87 footnotes, focused on the Department of Health and Human Services, written by Roger Severino , the vice president for domestic policy at Heritage. The top priority of the department in January 2025, he wrote, must be “protecting life, conscience and bodily integrity.” The secretary “must ensure that all H.H.S. programs and activities are rooted in a deep respect for innocent human life from Day 1 until natural death: Abortion and euthanasia are not health care.”

Going deeper, Severino contended that the department must flatly reject “harmful identity politics that replaces biological sex with subjective notions of ‘gender identity’ and bases a person’s worth on his or her race, sex or other identities. This destructive dogma, under the guise of ‘equity,’ threatens American’s fundamental liberties as well as the health and well-being of children and adults alike.”

Severino did not stop there. In his view, the department must be in the business of “promoting stable and flourishing married families” because “in the overwhelming number of cases, fathers insulate children from physical and sexual abuse, financial difficulty or poverty, incarceration, teen pregnancy, poor educational outcomes, high school failure and a host of behavioral and psychological problems.”

Regarding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Severino’s analysis:

By statute or regulation, C.D.C. guidance must be prohibited from taking on a prescriptive character. For example, never again should C.D.C. officials be allowed to say in their official capacity that schoolchildren “should be” masked or vaccinated or prohibited from learning in a school building. Such decisions should be left to parents and medical providers.

At the start of the book, Paul Dans , the executive director of Project 2025, pointedly wrote that “it’s not 1980,” when Heritage produced the first “Mandate for Leadership” to guide the incoming administration of Ronald Reagan. Instead, Dans argued, the United States in 2024 is at an apocalyptic moment:

The game has changed. The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before. The task at hand to reverse this tide and restore our republic to its original moorings is too great for any one conservative policy shop to spearhead. It requires the collective action of our movement. With the quickening approach of January 2025, we have one chance to get it right.

This time, the conservative movement plans to exercise maximum surveillance over an incoming Trump administration. In other words, there will be no kidding around.

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An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of an associate director of Project 2025. He is Spencer Chretien, not Chretian.

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/ecuadors-police-raid-on-mexican-embassy-in-quito-condemned-by-world-leaders

Ecuador’s police raid on Mexican Embassy in Quito condemned by world leaders

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — International leaders have condemned Ecuador after police in the country’s capital broke into the Mexican Embassy to arrest a former vice president who had been granted political asylum.

The raid late Friday prompted Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to break off diplomatic relations with Ecuador, while his government’s foreign relations secretary said the move will be challenged at the World Court in The Hague.

READ MORE: Mexico breaks diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police stormed embassy in Quito

Police broke through the external doors of the embassy in Quito to arrest Jorge Glas, who had been residing there since December. He had sought asylum after being indicted on corruption charges and it had been granted hours earlier.

The break-in was widely condemned.

The Organization of American States in a statement reminded its members, which include Ecuador and Mexico, of their obligation not to “invoke norms of domestic law to justify non-compliance with their international obligations.”

The Spanish foreign ministry, in a statement Sunday, said that “The entry by force into the Embassy of Mexico in Quito constitutes a violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. We call for respect for international law and harmony between Mexico and Ecuador, brotherly countries to Spain and members of the Ibero-American community.”

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that “the United States condemns any violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and takes very seriously the obligation of host countries under international law to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions.” He called on both countries to resolve their difference.

Honduran President Xiomara Castro, writing on X, characterized the raid as “an intolerable act for the international community” and a “violation of the sovereignty of the Mexican State and international law” because “it ignores the historical and fundamental right to asylum.”

Diplomatic premises are considered foreign soil and “inviolable” under the Vienna treaties and host country law enforcement agencies are not allowed to enter without the permission of the ambassador. People seeking asylum have lived anywhere from days to years at embassies around the world, including at Ecuador’s in London, which housed  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for seven years  as British police could not enter to arrest him.

Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s secretary of foreign relations, on Friday posted on the social media platform X that a number of diplomats suffered injuries during the break-in.

Bárcena said Mexico would take the case to the International Court of Justice “to denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of international law.” She also recalled Mexican diplomats.

Glas is taken to prison

On Saturday, Glas was taken from the attorney general’s office in Quito to the port city of Guayaquil, where he will remain in custody at a maximum-security prison. People who had gathered outside the prosecutor’s office yelled “strength” as he left with a convoy of police and military vehicles.

Glas’ attorney, Sonia Vera, told The Associated Press that officers broke into his room and he resisted when they attempted to put his hands behind his back. She said the officers then “knocked him to the floor, kicked him in the head, in the spine, in the legs, the hands,” and when he “couldn’t walk, they dragged him out.”

Vera said the defense team was not allowed to speak with Glas while he was at the prosecutor’s office, and it is now working to file a habeas corpus petition.

People demonstrate outside the Flagrancy Unit, where security forces were carrying out the operation of transferring former Ecuador Vice President Jorge Glas, in Quito, Ecuador, April 6, 2024. Photo by Karen Toro/Reuters

Authorities are investigating Glas over alleged irregularities during his management of reconstruction efforts following a powerful earthquake in 2016 that killed hundreds of people. He was convicted on bribery and corruption charges in other cases.

Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld on Saturday told reporters that the decision to enter the embassy was made by President Daniel Noboa after considering Glas’ “imminent flight risk” and exhausting all possibilities for diplomatic dialogue with Mexico.

Mexico granted Glas asylum hours before the raid. Sommerfeld said “it is not legal to grant asylum to people convicted of common crimes and by competent courts.”

Ecuador’s president faces reelection next year

Noboa became Ecuador’s president last year as the nation battled unprecedented crime tied to drug trafficking. He declared the country in an “internal armed conflict” in January and designated 20 drug-trafficking gangs as terrorist groups that the military had authorization to “neutralize” within the bounds of international humanitarian law.

READ MORE: Inheriting the leadership of a country on edge, Daniel Noboa is sworn in as Ecuador’s president

Will Freeman, a fellow of Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the decision to send police to Mexico’s embassy raises concerns over the steps Noboa is willing to take to get reelected. His tenure ends in 2025 as he was only elected to finish the term of former President Guillermo Lasso.

“I really hope Noboa is not turning more in a Bukele direction,” Freeman said, referring to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, whose tough-on-crime policies have been heavily criticized by human rights organizations. “That’s to say, less respectful of rule of law in order to get a boost to his popularity ahead of the elections.”

Freeman added that whether Glas was abusing diplomatic protection is a “separate issue” from the decision to send police to the embassy.

“We see a pattern of that in Latin America with politicians abusing embassies and foreign jurisdictions, not to flee prosecution but to flee accountability,” he said.

The Mexican Embassy in Quito remained under heavy police guard after the raid — the boiling point of recent tensions between Mexico and Ecuador.

Vera, Glas’ attorney, said she fears “something could happen” to him while in custody considering the track record of the country’s detention facilities, where hundreds of people have died during violent riots over the past few years. Those killed while in custody include some suspects in last year’s assassination of a presidential candidate.

“In Ecuador, going to jail is practically a death sentence,” Vera said. “We consider that the international political and legal person responsible for the life of Jorge Glas is President Daniel Noboa Azín.”

Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Gonzalo Solano in Quito and Megan Janetsky in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Leadership and Management — Essay On The Importance Of Accountability

Essay on The Importance of Accountability

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Published: Mar 13, 2024

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Accountability in the workplace, accountability in relationships, accountability in personal growth, implications and further exploration.

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Spending ESSER Funds Will Come Down to the Wire for Some Districts. Here’s Why

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The era of ESSER—the three rounds of federal pandemic-relief aid for K-12 schools totaling more than $190 billion—is coming to a close. But for some districts, spending the remaining dollars may come down to the wire.

Only six months remain for districts to commit all their federal COVID-relief dollars to specific expenses by the Sept. 30 deadline. Then districts have another four months—until Jan. 31, 2025—to “liquidate,” or spend those funds, unless they apply for a deadline extension for more time to spend the money on contract expenses.

The Edunomics Lab, a school finance research group based at Georgetown University, maintains the most up-to-date, publicly available data on ESSER spending , drawing from state dashboards.

Most districts, according to the Edunomics database and surveys conducted by the EdWeek Research Center , have spent the vast majority of their remaining funds or have concrete plans to do so.

But the Edunomics tracker currently shows more than 450 school districts, out of the nation’s 13,000, have spent fewer than 10 percent of ESSER III dollars. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank, highlighted those districts in a recent report , urging them to make use of the money before it’s too late.

Education Week contacted more than two dozen of those districts and received responses from seven. All but one said they’ve actually spent a much larger share of their remaining federal emergency funds than what the publicly available data show.

Any dollars districts don’t commit and spend by the deadlines will go back to the U.S. Treasury.

Less than 1 percent of ESSER I, the first and smallest of the three rounds of emergency funds, went unspent .

An exact figure for unspent ESSER II figures wasn’t yet available at press time, because the federal government appears to still be processing requests from states to grant districts deadline extensions on contract spending. The U.S. department of Education and the Treasury didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment in time for publication.

But Marguerite Roza, the director of the Edunomics Lab, said the number is no higher than $662 million—the amount states reported districts hadn’t spent as of the ESSER II liquidation deadline.

That means the maximum amount of unspent ESSER II money is slightly more than 1 percent of the $54 billion Congress allocated in December 2020 . Some of those dollars will likely go toward contract expenses that districts will get permission to pay after the deadline, so the amount of money that goes back to the Treasury will likely be less than $662 million.

If districts were to collectively send back 1 percent of ESSER III dollars once the deadline passes, they would be returning $1.2 billion, or $24 for each of the nation’s 50 million K-12 students.

All told, schools have spent or will spend the overwhelming majority of federal funds geared toward helping them recover from the pandemic.

Still, even districts with the best intentions may fall short of spending everything in time, and even a small amount of unspent money could have paid for something worthwhile.

“If I were a teacher, I’d be like, ‘If you’re sending back $5,000, I could have done something with that,’” Roza said.

Here’s a look at the reasons why some districts appear to be lagging behind on ESSER spending—and some risk factors district leaders should anticipate as they wrap up the ESSER era.

Districts haven’t requested reimbursement yet

In order to liquidate ESSER funds, districts typically pay for their desired items out of their own budgets and then request reimbursement from their state education department, which refunds them out of the bucket of federal funds.

District processes for submitting requests for reimbursement vary considerably, which means databases like the one Edunomics maintains won’t immediately show all the money that’s been spent.

For instance, according to the Edunomics database , the Lake Ridge New Tech schools in Gary, Ind., haven’t spent a penny of the nearly $9 million they received for ESSER III.

In reality, the district has spent millions of dollars on salaries and benefits for academic and behavior interventionists but has yet to request reimbursement, said Adrian Wilkerson, the district’s business manager and chief financial officer.

The district plans to submit reimbursement requests to the state in the next couple months so those expenses show up in data reporting, Wilkerson said. Even so, his contacts at the state education department have pressed him at times over whether his district has a plan to spend all its money in time.

“We’ve tried to keep them up to date, but they sometimes get kind of locked into their dashboards and the numbers they have in front of them,” Wilkerson said.

Tip : Roza recommends districts submit reimbursement requests as soon as possible. Some state education departments may run out of their own ESSER funds that have been paying salaries for staff members who process those requests. Waiting until right before the deadline risks an administrative hiccup with disastrous consequences, particularly if the department rejects any requests. And the sooner those requests are in, the quicker accurate information about district spending will be available to the public.

Some planned expenses haven’t played out yet

The Riverdale school district in Illinois has an addition and security improvements planned for its elementary school, said T.J. Bull-Welch, the 1,000-student district’s business manager.

The Oxford Hills school district in Maine will liquidate $1 million soon to pay for the construction of an outdoor learning pavilion, which is still underway, said Carrie Colley, the director of finance and operations for the 3,000-student district.

And Wilkerson’s district in Indiana is investing $3 million this summer to beef up security at the front entrances of several school buildings.

In all three of those cases, districts have signed contracts for planned work to be completed in time for expenses to be covered by all or most of the remaining ESSER III dollars.

Similarly, the Carroll County school district in Maryland is planning to spend down the remainder of its funds on summer programming, including staff wages and student transportation costs, said Robert Burk, the 26,000-student district’s chief financial officer.

Districts may have some wiggle room on construction projects or other contracted services that extend past the ESSER III deadline. Several states successfully pursued permission from the federal Education Department for their districts to take as much as 18 additional months to finish spending ESSER II money on construction-contract expenses. They’ll have the same opportunity with ESSER III.

Tip : Districts should be careful about assuming expenses in August and September will play out as they anticipate. For instance, a district might expect to drain its remaining ESSER dollars by paying the salary of a guidance counselor through Sept. 30. But if that person quits in August, there will be money left over. “You have to have a backup plan,” Roza said.

There’s still time to spend money

Everyone from researchers to the U.S. secretary of education has at times bemoaned the seemingly slow pace at which schools have spent ESSER funds. But the grant period allowed schools some flexibility over whether to rush out the money right away or strategize to use it over its lifespan.

Some districts are still figuring out how to make the most of their ESSER III money.

The small administrative team at the 500-student Gladbrook-Reinbeck district in Iowa has been considering a bond election that would add millions of dollars to the district’s arsenal if voters approve.

The outcome of that bond election, if it happens, could help determine how the district will spend its remaining ESSER dollars over the next couple months, said Kayla Sabbah, the district’s business officer. Classroom supplies and security upgrades will likely take precedence.

“We have every intention to spend it all. We’ll take advantage of it while we have it, that’s for sure,” Sabbah said.

In Montana, school districts won’t be eligible to apply for state grants to help address lead in water until they can show that they’ve spent all their remaining ESSER money on other qualified expenses.

Tip : Districts should operate with the assumption that they may have money left over if they haven’t already figured out how to spend it, Roza said. She suggests schools ask teachers to post items they want on a platform like DonorsChoose. If the district ends up with leftover funds, it can invest in those classroom items to ensure not a penny goes to waste.

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