Comments on: Last year, fewer reports about wrongdoing by DOE employees

By: carol prince

carol prince — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:11:54 +0000

Not so. A lot of people see the reports and if Klein accepts the reccomendation of Condon then Klein fowards the reports to his Administrative Trials Unit who in turn have hearings and file charges if serious enough or foward the report to the principal who in turn has a meeting with the teacher and his UFT representative who review the report. A LOT of people see the report.

By: Leonie Haimson

Leonie Haimson — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:10:06 +0000

Right now, only the Chancellor sees these reports, so unless your source is Klein himself, I’m not sure how accurate this is — and even if so, I wouldn’t necessarily trust him. Last year, there were over 300 substantiated cases of malfeisance or corruption among DOE employees, and less than 6% of these cases were reported to the public. This is not a healthy situation — nor one that speaks to the transparency of the DOE or the Special Commissioner’s office.

By: carol prince

carol prince — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:58:33 +0000

A well trusted source plus the fact that principals, mostly new, do not know what has to be reported and what doesn’t have to be reported and some of the doesn’t have to be reported complaints wind up having Condon’s investigators show up at schools.

By: Leonie Haimson

Leonie Haimson — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:22:20 +0000

Carol: you write “Most of the substantiated cases are for minor infractions that shouldn’t even be investigated by Condon but referded to the Chancelor’s investigators.” How do you know this is the case, if these cases are never reported to the public?

By: carol prince

carol prince — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:35:44 +0000

The cases that go public are the ones that are considered newsworthy like an arrest or serious misconduct. Most of the substantiated cases are for minor infractions that shouldn’t even be investigated by Condon but referded to the Chancelor’s investigators but if you notice the chart the complaints go up. This is because Condon comes from the Police Department with the mantality based on making complaints like summons and arrests go up from the previous year.

By: Eric N.

Eric N. — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:15:55 +0000

Let’s say that there are 100,000 teachers, administrators, counselors, etc. in the DoE. (I’ve often heard this number mentioned, and it’s an easy round number to play with.) This means that for every thousand staff members, there were 7+ investigations and 3+ cases of wrong-doing in 2008. Scary! What’s shocking is how much fraud, cheating, and sexual misconduct must have been happening and not prosecuted before the Office of the Special Commissioner of Education stepped up its investigative efforts. Makes me wonder whether if there’s still much more misconduct to un-cover.