The real story: Walpin discovered millions of dollars of federal money missing at City University of New York. CUNY received the millions for students in the Americorp program, many of whom were already receiving full scholarships. Isn’t that called double dipping?
The Research Foundation at CUNY set up a Teaching Fellows Program in 2000. It had no AmeriCorps connection at the time. The program covers tuition for the fellows, and it has always attracted huge numbers of applicants. The program had 19,200 applicants last year for 3,000 spots. CUNY does not advertise an AmeriCorps affiliation as an inducement for applicants. A survey by Mr. Walpin’s office found that most fellows were not even aware there was an AmeriCorps connection.
Yet, for the past six years, AmeriCorps has granted each fellow up to $9,450 on top of their scholarships. As Mr. Walpin describes it, the AmeriCorps cash has the appearance of a gratuity - “because it adds no service to the community which is not already provided by the Fellows Program.”
The Fellows Program earns praise, but the AmeriCorps funding is far from essential for it. The grants, therefore - “upwards of $80 million of taxpayer money,” Mr. Walpin told The Washington Times on Saturday - would be far better used for other purposes.
“The [Fellows Program at] City University of New York is the largest AmeriCorps program,” Mr. Walpin told us. “The corporation board clearly did not like the idea that we were holding that their largest program was invalid.”
The board chairman is Alan Solomont, a longtime top Democratic donor who bundled more than $800,000 combined for the Obama presidential campaign and Inauguration. He had been a Democratic appointee on the AmeriCorps board since 2000 before Mr. Obama elevated him to chairman.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/16/obamas-walpin-gate-problem/