Posted on 03/03/2005 12:32:11 AM PST by Liz
Might think with all that Roslyn loot, guy mighta had some plastic surgery on hs ugly puss although Tassone did go to a weight-reduction specialist. But, oooohhh, that nose.
I actually saw it happen -- this downward spiral - up close. Years ago I worked in an office where I had to travel a lot -- $5,000 a month was a typical expense report. The guy I traveled with began charging his morning coffee at the airport to his expense account. Then he began getting extra taxi receipts. After that he progressed to lunches/dinners when he wasn't traveling. One day he met a girl on the road and played hot shot with an $800 dinner. And then he was fired. In all, they eventually found like $15,000 in phony expenses.
The Bell Curve thing, right? I don't buy into it. I still believe SAT scores are tied into parental income and educational level. If you compare the data of house hold income, you'll see what I'm talking about.
Well, fine. The parents in Roslyn are also rich and smart.
School shenanigans ping (NooYawk style).
Looks like it’s the popular thing to do. And it must be easy to steal education money. That tells me there is too much of it floating around out there that nobody has a clue what its for.
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15595 - Corruption in Public Schools Costs Taxpayers, Impedes Reform.
Author: Lisa Snell
Published: The Heartland Institute 09/01/2004
Ongoing news reports from across the country indicate incidents of corruption and mismanagement in the public schools occur frequently, often on a massive scale. Ignoring the scale of the problem not only costs taxpayers millions of dollars but also hinders school reform efforts, according to New York University law professor Lydia G. Segal.
In her recent book, Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools (Northwestern University Press, 2003), Segal argues, "one impediment to reform that no one is seriously studying in the debate over how to improve public schools is systematic fraud, waste, and abuse." Her careful documentation of the pervasive corruption and waste in the nation's three largest school districts--New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles--leaves little doubt the problem merits serious study.
However, fraud, waste, and abuse are not limited to large urban school districts, as the following recent examples demonstrate.
$8 Million in Undocumented Expenses - In New York's affluent Roslyn School District on Long Island ………. [what’s in NY Times].
$15.9 Million in Kickbacks - In Fort Worth, Texas, a school construction scandal ended in June with the former executive director of maintenance for the Fort Worth School District, Tommy Ingram, and contractor Ray Brooks being sentenced to eight years in prison each for a kickback scheme in which they defrauded the school district of an estimated $15.9 million.
Mismanagement - …… California's Oakland Unified School District, state auditors could not determine if … the district had appropriately spent millions of dollars and properly complied with scores of state and federal mandates. …. the district could be forced to repay $163 million …….. district bonds worth $322 million are in jeopardy of losing their tax-exempt status because the funds have been inappropriately spent …….
According to the audit's findings, the district's shortcomings included: Failing to hold competitive bidding for $18.4 million in contracts; inappropriately using $650,000 in bond funds to pay a lawsuit settlement; Issuing payroll checks to employees when they no longer worked for the district; Failing to maintain attendance records at some schools and over reporting attendance at others; Inappropriately carrying over unused funds for federal projects from one year to the next.
…… in south Florida, auditors delivered 650 pages of backup documents ……. that charged the Miami-Dade school district with wasting more than $100 million …….. audit alleged there was massive disorganization and waste in the program as well as "probable malfeasance, misfeasance, and potential for fraud."
Payroll Scam - …… eight employees of the New Orleans school system pleaded guilty to stealing more than $70,000 in a scheme in which payroll clerk Louis Serrano wrote fraudulent checks ……… A ninth employee ….. admitted stealing $250,000 by printing checks to herself using her maiden name. ……. According to a recent report …… school system employees have cashed an estimated $3 million in paychecks that administrators sent out either in error or with criminal intent.
More in New Orleans - FEDERAL GRAND JURY INDICTS ELEVEN IN ORLEANS PARISH SCHOOLS CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION – DEC 2004
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/invtreports/la122004.html
In the first indictment , GLENN DAVIS, age 51, of New Orleans, Louisiana and CHARLES "CHUCK" SWANSON, age 59, were charged in a two count indictment with violating the Hobbs Act for kick backs ……….. in order to retain highly lucrative health insurance contracts for insurance companies they represented.
In the second indictment returned by the Grand Jury, two teachers and two clerical employees ……. were charged with a Hobbs Act Conspiracy and extortion scheme. ….
The third indictment alleges that three individuals, JUAWANNE SCOTT, age 32, of New Orleans, SHERRY WILKERSON, age 47, of New Orleans, and ANGELA WILLIAMS, age 38 of New Orleans conspired to commit bank larceny in their positions at the Orleans Public School Federal Credit Union.
In the fourth indictment the Grand Jury indicted DEBBIE WILLIAMS, age 42, of New Orleans and LOLETA WRIGHT, age 39, of New Orleans for conspiring to possess forged checks and for illegally passing the forged checks. DEBBIE WILLIAMS was employed as a secretary at McMain Secondary School located on Claiborne Avenue and LOLETA WRIGHT was an assistant secretary at McMain. The Grand Jury alleged that WRIGHT and WILLIAMS, in their capacity as clerical workers at the school, would pick up the paychecks from a check depository in uptown New Orleans.
Atlanta – Federal Grand Jury Returns Superseding Indictment Against Former School Superintendent Schrenko – FEB 2005
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/invtreports/gan022005.html
……. to fraudulently obtain over a half million dollars of federal funds administered by the Georgia Department of Education. The indictment alleges that SCHRENKO personally ordered the Georgia Department of Education to issue multiple checks in amounts just under $50,000, totaling over $500,000, to various companies owned and controlled by BOTES and STEYN purportedly to provide computer licenses and services to the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, the Georgia School for the Deaf, and the Governor's Honors Program. The indictment further alleges that BOTES directed a subordinate employee to funnel a total of approximately $250,000 of the funds obtained from the Georgia Department of Education directly and indirectly to SCHRENKO and others for the benefit of SCHRENKO's gubernatorial campaign through a series of cash payments, wire transfers through a foreign bank account, and other disguised financial transactions.
Silver Spring, MD - Man Sentenced to 175 Months in Prison in Connection with Scheme to Steal Approximately $900,000 Dollars in Grant Money Intended for a Public School District in South Dakota – AUG 2004
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/invtreports/dc082004.html
According to the facts presented at the trial and plea hearing, Holmes and Francois conspired to receive stolen government funds under DOE's Impact Aid program which were intended by DOE to aid school districts whose tax base was depleted by the presence of non-taxable sources such as military bases or Indian reservations. In March 2000, Holmes and Francois caused the stolen government funds to be deposited into the business banking account of Dany Enterprises, which was owned by Dorcely.
My question – did South Dakota ever miss the money they were supposed to get?
Here is a list of all US Dept of Ed IG Investigative Reports, indictments and convictions for the last few years. Sounds like people think it’s easy to steal from the Dept of Education. Maybe it is and these are only the ones that got caught.
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/ireports.html
It happens time and time again.
When the 'house of cards' finally crumbles, those being fleeced always ask, "How could we have been so stupid?"
That they are. And with rich and smart comes a lifestyle that includes more than two books in the house, the opportunity to travel widely, the expectation the child will grow up to be rich and smart, a better diet based on awareness of food, better care of the mother during pregnancy, a value system that prizes rich and smart, and a bunch of other stuff.
The thing that interested me about the guy who stole is that it seemed inevitable from the moment he crossed that line. It's best not to cross that line.
What school district did this guy head before he was at Roslyn? That district should audit their books as well.
Which reinforces my original point that I doubt this investigation will reveal SAT manipulation.
Now, if you told me that "Dr". Tassone and Ms. Gluckin has similar travel schedules, I would not be at all surprised.
Don't know --
Also, thank you all. This has been really enjoyable. I have to get to work now, but it's been a pleasure.
Of course they are. SATs are intelligence tests. Offspring intelligence is tied to parent intelligence. Parental income and education levels are tied to parent intelligence. And, it will be repeated in the next generation.
This kind of thing just infuriates me. Grrrr.
As far as I can tell, the only people who've lost their jobs are the perps. The people who were supposed to prevent such theft will all be portrayed as victims.
And what, pray tell, is Hevesi's job??? He's the COMPTROLLER of the state. He's doing the audits NOW?! Where was he when all this was going on.
How did HE allow the state to create a system where:
--cardholders can get cash advances
--software could be manipulated to hide payment recipients (and obviously no independent person was reconciling bank stmts)
--they were allowed to hire an auditor who was obviously compromised.
--budget categories could be transferred without state detection
--no one noticed that the treasurer wasn't attending meetings or signing checks as required
--payrolls were being manipulated to overpay salaries and bonuses and THEN the inflated amounts were inflated AGAIN to report a higher base for pension calculations.
And this is my favorite line in the first article:
"Since the Roslyn debacle, the comptroller has given seminars to school officials around the state and has also asked for $5 million to resume REGULAR SCHOOL AUDITS, WHICH ENDED TWO DECADES AGO IN A BUDGET CUT".
WHO were the idiots who thought eliminating the AUDITORS was a good idea? I'd like to see the names. WHy wasn't Hevesi screaming from the rooftops?
Heads should be rolling all the way up the chain. I predict New Yorkers will just let this one die out like all the other horrors we hear about (custodians). No one in the private sector would survive this happening on their watch...whether they stole anything or not. And if the people of a state want to put up with this, fine...just take my federal dollars out of the mix. Let them throw away their own money.
What does "I don't buy into it" mean?
You don't seriously dispute that ethnicity is a strong (actually, a very, very strong) predictor of combined SAT score, do you?
What in God's name was the school board doing over the entire theft process? The should also be brought up on charges.
SATs do exactly what they were designed to do: try to predict how well a student will do in college (specifically their freshman year). This is why leftists rail against the SAT because it accurately predicts that students promoted beyond their skill or benefitting from quotas will fail in disproportionate numbers.
If rich parents can hire special tutors to help their kids do better on the SATs (something I have not heard about but don't doubt in the slightest) that doesn't invalidate the test which has been proven to be quite accurate. It could be argued persuasively that rich kids will do better in college because they have had a better education, more resources, and more involved parents.
The SAT works because it's an impartial indicator (not determiner) of some unpleasant truths. And the last thing that liberals want is the truth laid bare... which is why they attack it.
The average salary for a Superintendent on LI is $172,037 with additional compensation of, 26,932. per year.
I have no disrespect for people making a living but with property taxes, 70% of residence tax bill, I find it on the high side.
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