Education
Little oversight of profitable charter school
The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Connie Langland and Dale Mezzacappa report on a charter school’s manager “who has turned Chester Community Charter School into a profitable, expanding business in the heart of the virtually bankrupt school district.” Vahan H. Gureghian’s Charter School Management Inc. has a 20-year contract with the school’s board of trustees that both have…
Read More20 percent of fired teachers accused of sex crimes
Pamela Hamilton of the Associated Press used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records showing that “one in five educators sanctioned by the state for bad behavior in South Carolina in the past three years had been accused of sexual misconduct such as molesting or having sex with students or other children.” Nearly…
Read More‘Highly qualified’ teachers don’t always equal high student scores
Amy L. Kovac and Jaci Smith of New Jersey’s Herald-News used state education data to show that in Passaic County, having a “highly qualified” teacher doesn’t always mean that students will do better on standardized tests. “The largest disparity was in Passaic’s Lincoln Middle School. About 71 percent of eighth-graders there failed to achieve proficiency…
Read MoreLack of inspection data raises concerns for Utah school safety
Nate Carlisle and Jessica Ravitz The Salt Lake Tribune report on the state of fire inspections in public schools, following a fire that destroyed Wasatch Junior High School. The school was old and did not have modern fire safety features. “Yet state records show the last time inspectors examined the school was four years ago.”…
Read MoreState, university employees’ salaries swell
Jane Stancill and David Raynor of The (Raleigh/Durham) News & Observer analyzed state payroll data to find that “there are already more than 2,200 state and University of North Carolina system employees who are paid more than $100,000 in state money a year; more than two-thirds of them work at the universities.” Pay for university…
Read MoreSchool administrators paid big during yearlong leaves
Megan Twohey of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel used university documents to show that “the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has paid four former administrators more than $600,000 in taxpayer dollars for yearlong leaves granted after their resignations.” The college does not track what officials granted such leaves do during that time, when typically they are preparing to…
Read MoreCompany builds silo within 300 feet of school
Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette investigates a coal company, which has built and begun to build silos outside the companies permit area, within 300 feet of a school. The Gazette used color overlays of hard-copy mine maps produced by a local blueprint shop, so that maps dating back to 1982 could be easily…
Read MorePaper finds inaccuracies in after-school claims
Paul Tosto of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on discrepancies the paper found in a report the state published claiming that Minnesota has more young children taking care of themselves after school than any other state in the country. They found that the “commission did not have statistics showing Minnesota with the nation’s highest…
Read MoreSchool district loses big by investing locally
Joel Rutchick of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer used local school financial records to show that “the Cleveland Municipal School District has lost out on as much as $14 million in potential investment income over the last three years by investing most of its idle cash through local banks – which have paid lower interest rates…
Read MoreHigh benefit payouts hurt Oregon schools
Betsy Hammond of The (Portland) Oregonian analyzed state education data to find that “for each teacher, secretary, principal, janitor and other worker, Oregon schools paid an average of $18,300 for health insurance and retirement pay in 2002-03. That was 55 percent more than schools across the nation.” Matching the national rate of benefits would save…
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