Dave Umhoefer and Alan J. Borsuk of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found in a three-part series “Subtraction by Addition” that Milwaukee Public Schools spent $102 million on a building spree on bigger neighborhood schools but that the building program has largely failed.  Today, many of those new classrooms are empty. Declines in enrollment and falling test score have marred the schools that were the biggest recipients of the construction money.

“A yearlong examination by The Sacramento Bee of more than 250 applicants for military service found that the Army, Navy and Marines accepted ex-felons, people with serious drug and alcohol or mental health problems and dozens of others with significant criminal backgrounds or otherwise troubling histories.” In the series, Russ Carollo reports on how trouble followed these individuals into service, and often upon their return to civilian life. The investigation revealed that some crimes originally attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder where perpetrated by individuals who had criminal histories prior to their service in Iraq.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Heather Vogell and computer-assisted reporting specialist John Perry found that Georgia schools routinely promote students who state law says should stay back because they’re falling behind. The law, aimed at stopping so-called “social promotion,” requires schools to retain students in grades 3, 5 and 8 who can’t pass certain standardized tests.But the vast majority are moved up anyway, the AJC found , even when they repeatedly fail or blow off a retest altogether. Vogell and Perry examined nearly 800,000 records showing student test performance and promotion status.

Mackenzie Ryan, of the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times, recently looked into state salary earnings and found a state university contract incentive that pays professors for teaching online classes. Pay for these courses, taught in addition to their normal work load, is based on a on a per-student, per-credit bases which pushes some professors to earn among the highest salaries of all state employees.

An inspection by the U.S. Department of Education revealed that “D.C. school administrators can

An investigative report by Josh Bernstein of KNXV-Phoenix revealed that tires on school buses serving six area districts had major damage — chunks of rubber missing, splitting treads — yet the buses were still in use. Despite claims that tires are changed twice per school year, some buses had tires that were over eight years old. Arizona’s minimum safety requirements for school buses do not address the age of tires.

An investigation by David Andreatta, of the Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, N.Y.), examined the textbook procurement procedure of the Rochester School District and found a wide range of problems and waste. Issues range from nearly 20,000 book going undistributed eight months into the school year to $1.4 million in secondary school books being lost by both schools and students. Another approximately 70,000 textbooks were discarded despite still being useful for classroom instruction.

KSTP-Minneapolis investigated Minnesota’s School District Integration Revenue, a fund intended to enhance diversity in schools across the state. “Experts say that money has been budgeted with no clear purpose.” A line-by-line evaluation of one district’s budget revealed questionable spending, such as charges for food and candy amounting to over $24,000 per month.

An investigation by Jim Parsons of WTAE-Pittsburgh “exposed a system that allows disruptive students to get the same diploma as other children, even though they only have to put in half the number of hours.” Many of the schools attended by these troubled students are run by private nonprofits that do not require certification for their teachers.

After a 10-month investigtion, The Arizona Daily Star reports that many students in Tucson-area school districts are being socially promoted and not earning the grades they deserve. “In the 2006-07 school year alone, nine in 10 students were moved to the next grade level, but data show that nearly a third of them failed basic courses in English, math, science or social studies.”