While Governor Bobby Jindal and State Superintendent John White continue to slug it out over Common Core and PARCC testing, a new wrinkle has been added.
Blogger Louisiana Voice reports that John White’s office is being investigated for payroll fraud:
“LouisianaVoice has learned the Legislative Auditor’s office is conducting an investigation of DOE that could involve payroll fraud, according to sources inside the department.
“White, as we have reported several times in the past, has loaded up the department with unclassified appointments at bloated six-figure salaries.
“There are apparently three major problems with that:
“Many of these appointees seldom, if ever, show up for work and apparently are required to perform few, if any, duties to earn their keep;
“The department did not have enough money in its budget to pay their salaries so they are reportedly being paid from federal funds earmarked for specific purposes;
“The appointees are not assigned to areas for which the federal funds are allocated.
“If true, these are serious allegations and even more serious violations that could prompt a federal probe in addition to the investigation already underway by the Legislative Auditor.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
quote: “LouisianaVoice has learned the Legislative Auditor’s office is conducting an investigation of DOE that could involve payroll fraud, according to sources inside the department. White, as we have reported several times in the past, has loaded up the department with unclassified appointments at bloated six-figure salaries.”
In Massachusetts only one man went to jail; one superintendent got a $5,000 ethics fine. They had a lobbyist on the payroll of a special education school and he never spent one day in the program of the schools but he qualified for “teacher retirement” pension plan because he was on the payroll. As parents, taxpayers, voters we all need to be more vigilant. One of our candidates for Governor last week said “like everyone but trust no one” and I am afraid it has come to that.
quote: “The department did not have enough money in its budget to pay their salaries so they are reportedly being paid from federal funds earmarked for specific purposes;”
I suspect this is the case in other states and they draw on the grant awarded to New Mexico by U.S. Department of Ed and who knows what the accountability on that funding is…. or how you trace it across states. Junket to London anyone?
The misuse of Federal Funds can be investigated by the FBI.
Sent from my iPhone
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From someone with many government connections, here’s some sage advice:
Don’t mess with the money, especially Federal money.
But with this Justice department and enamored WH…one never knows if anything will come of it.
“The department did not have enough money in its budget to pay their salaries so they are reportedly being paid from federal funds earmarked for specific purposes;
“The appointees are not assigned to areas for which the federal funds are allocated.”
White is just confused, he thinks his last name is Long. He also things he is governor. I am sure it was just a misunderstanding……..
And we have a winner!
This situation involves overpaying individuals so that they can repay a percentage into other accounts. It’s the laundering of federal money.
Even better…is there an app for that? Just shameless. At least with Huey there was some public benefit. With White, I see none.
And yet some still claim that “school reform” is not about making $.
Oh well.
Probably just an unintended consequence or oversight on the part of some well intentioned but misguided individual.
😉
Ang: you must be reading the wrong blogs.
😏
It’s all those “bloated six-figure salaries” LIFO teachers who don’t want to be held accountable because they insist on putting their own interests ahead of those of their students and their parents and their communities. That’s where the real corruption is…
Charterites/privatizers like Bobby Jindal and John White are only in it “for the kids.”
Honest.
😲
Ok, on this question of the alleged greed of the self-styled “education reform” crowd, let me refer back to one of their bedrock Marxist principle:
“Who are you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”
😧
Please—a lesser Marx, Chico, masquerading as Groucho the Greater Marx.
Although piling deception on deception, perhaps Groucho the Greater would come in handy describing the whole $tudent $ucce$$ education establishment:
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
Now, don’t you feel all tingly inside?
Or not…
😎
Teachers generally have no access to the cookie jar.
After two district employees (married couple) embezzled three million dollars by purchasing photocopied “books” through a foundation they set up themselves, all employees have to go through financial training and seminars. The vast majority of us have no access to that kind of money, but we’re stuck at the seminars anyway. And the couple who embezzled? They got a suspended sentence from a judge who said that the “good” they had give to the community outweighed the theft. The district has never gotten back most of that money.
Sure we do NJ Teacher, we get a few of the crumbs. If we are lucky they are put into our pension along with Jack’s magical beans in the hope (on our part) that they will grow into something useful.