UW-Madison may be owed $150,000 in back payments from non-profit employers that use work-study students, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The Federal Work Study Program provides students with an amount of money they can then earn through a job during the academic year. The employer and the university share the costs of paying the student from that set amount of work study money.
Susan Fischer, director of UW-Madison's Office of Student Financial Services, told the AP the problems came from payroll glitches that under-billed some employers.
""I would call it a series of breakdowns within the systems,"" Fischer told the AP. ""The reconciliation of accounts has not been smooth or done well.""
Many work-study students work at elementary schools in the Madison Metropolitan School District.
The UW-Madison Metropolitan School District owes about $75,000, according to Assistant Superintendent Roger Price.
He said the school district is doing its own verification of the payments but will pay the money if it is owed, despite the possible time lapsed since some of the billing mistakes occurred.
""We have a primary responsibility to protect the taxpayer,"" Price said, in regard to verifying the money owed.
He said no schools will be closed on account of the money owed, and individual schools will deal with the amount owed in their own budget processes.
Price said the university notified the school district in December, after which the school district immediately started investigating the problem.
Price said after the Madison School District was notified, the university immediately started working with it to prevent problems from arising in the future.
Price said new billing processes may be negotiated with the university.
University Communications declined comment, and as of press time Fischer was unavailable for comment.
