So now we are jailing teachers

[CatWoman]

Atlanta cheating scandal teachers go to cells in hand-cuffs: Eleven educators face up to 20 years in prison for inflating their students' test scores to get bonus money for their schools . . . and for themselves

In one of the biggest cheating scandals of its kind in the U.S., 11 former Atlanta public school educators were convicted Wednesday of racketeering for their role in a scheme to inflate students' scores on standardized exams.

The defendants - including teachers, a principal and other administrators - were accused of falsifying test results to collect bonuses or keep their jobs in the 50,000-student Atlanta school system.

The educators fed answers to students or erased and changed the answers on tests after they were turned in to secure promotions or up to $5,000 each in bonuses, the court was told.

However the person accused of benefiting the most from the conspiracy, Superintendent Beverly Hall - who is thought to have received up to $500,000 in bonus payouts - died of breast cancer over the course of the trial.

A 12th defendant, a teacher, was acquitted of all charges by the jury this week.

The 11 will all be sentenced on April 8 and could face up to 20 years in prison for the racketeering charges.

They were all found guilty under the the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, which is typically reserved for major mobsters and organized crime bosses.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3021915/11-Atlanta-educators-convicted-test-cheating-scandal.html#ixzz3W76lDhgA
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[Man from Pickens]

1. if they committed fraud

then they should go to jail, being teachers shouldn't make them immune

what do you think they are, bankers?

[marym625]

7. ha!

Good one

[99th_Monkey]

2. Mostly black teachers, I couldn't help but notice.

on the evening TV news clip.

On Edit: however all or most are getting plea deals for just probation & community service, so there's that.

[840high]

35. One black teacher was found not guilty.

[Major Nikon]

3. RICO is not just reserved for mobsters

RICO has been used against the Catholic church for covering up child rapists, forced birthers blocking access to abortion clinics, police departments, MLB, etc.

If what they are saying about these teachers and administrators is true, they absolutely should be charged under RICO.

[marym625]

4. God damn the RICO act

This is not what it was meant for.

And schools shouldn't be funded based on anything but the number of students.

Yes, they should be punished. But 20 years?

Our country has gone down the toilet

[CatWoman]

5. thank you Mary

[marym625]

6. I forgot to K&R

K&R!

[caraher]

10. it's crazy

How many years would they face for rape? How many years have the people who crashed Wall Street served for wrecking millions of lives?

I think this harshly punitive sentencing is just another facet of the war on public education. I'd be surprised if teachers at an anointed golden charter school would be treated as harshly for a comparable cheating scandal.

[marym625]

13. I agree. they wouldn't be.

[appalachiablue]

26. +1

[marym625]

33. btw..

It's not just a war on public education, though I agree with you, there's just an outright war on education, period. They want is ignorant and each year, we are more and more ignorant.

[caraher]

42. good point

taking down the public schools and turning the rest into profit centers is one goal. But the bigger goal is ending education entirely and replacing it with some minimal job training served with a side of propaganda.

[kelly1mm]

8. We jail teachers all the time when/if they are convited of crimes. Child molestation, drunk driving

shoplifting, ect. These teachers commit fraud for personal gain. They should go to jail for it.

[ND-Dem]

11. Personal gain my ass.

[kelly1mm]

14. Dd you not read the OP? $5000 bonues is not personal gain to you? From the OP:

"The defendants - including teachers, a principal and other administrators - were accused of falsifying test results to collect bonuses or keep their jobs in the 50,000-student Atlanta school system.

The educators fed answers to students or erased and changed the answers on tests after they were turned in to secure promotions or up to $5,000 each in bonuses, the court was told. "

[ND-Dem]

17. i read it. i also read other stories about it, and the background. more than half the teachers in

the Atlanta school system allegedly cheated; do you think it was all about frigging non-existent $5K bonuses?

and not only teachers, but principals, testing coordinators, the superintendent of schools, and other administrators.

and surprise -- most of the 'guilty' are black (like most of the students).

Go further with your research than a stupid tabloid story next time.

[840high]

36. This is not a tabloid

story. You're talking about my town. It's been in the news for many, many months.

[ND-Dem]

37. the daily mail is a british tabloid. that's the link that's in the OP. if atlanta is your town,

maybe you should try reading some of the non-tabloid coverage.

[840high]

40. I most certainly did - BBC has coverage

as does every major outlet.

[840high]

15. They cheated and lined their pockets.

I have no problem with them going to jail.

[caraher]

12. But up to 20 years?

Sure, fraud committed for financial gain should be subject to legal consequences. Let's scale the punishment to the crime and see what sentences other fraudsters are serving...

[kelly1mm]

16. The length of incarceration is a different question than should they be incarcerated at all. I

would not have sentenced them to more than 3 years myself (assuming this was a first offense).

[ND-Dem]

18. some people will believe any garbage that fits with their preexisting biases.

[LanternWaste]

47. Whilst simultaneously rationalizing fraud as part and parcel of a noble endeavor.

"some people will believe any garbage that fits with their preexisting biases...."

Whilst simultaneously rationalizing fraud as part and parcel of a noble endeavor.
(insert distinction without a difference below...)

[ND-Dem]

9. This is the rotten fruit of "education reform," putting teachers and administrators

under pressure of job loss and school closing to get impossible test scores, then jailing them for 20 years when they do what you planned for them to do: cheat on fixed tests.

[KingCharlemagne]

21. I don't know as anyone 'planned' for teachers to cheat on these stupid tests. I think certain malign

forces planned to use NCLB and its related testing mandates as a cudgel with which to smash teachers' unions and set back collective bargaining among public school employees.

In a way, I suppose it's fortunate Senator Kennedy died before the putrid smell of that 'rotting fruit' could reach his nostrils. I sure feel bad for the kids, though. Who will advocate for their interests?

[ND-Dem]

24. of course they did. when you construct impossible tests that *all* students must pass or the

school gets taken apart, teachers fired, whatever, you expect cheating.

then you can fire/jail the cheaters, publicize the cheating, and take apart the school without the previously required in-between steps.

all grist for the privatization mill.

[KingCharlemagne]

31. It's an interesting theory you posit, but do you have any evidence for it? Or is it

all by inference? Not that there's anything wrong with that per se, but I prefer the empirical to the inferential. I will say that, on grounds of pure logic, your theory makes at least as much sense as mine (if not more). It's really a shame watching the grand bourgeois leveling institution of universal public education go the way of the Do Do bird. But universal public education is but one piece of the superstructure and its demise or transformation will do nothing to set aright the periodic and predictable crises that afflict the substructure of post-industrial capitalism (and will eventually cause its collapse).

[F4lconF16]

43. +1

Though I tend to lean a little more to the assumption that he's correct, simply because that resembles a number of other things they've done. Capitalism is ingenious at finding ways to oppress the working classes.

[RobinA]

49. I'll Buy the First Part

Cheat or be fired, which happens in far more workplaces than ever get credit for it, will usually have predictable results. I have been in this situation twice and I left both times. One time it was a second job that I didn't need and the other time I stuck around until I could find a new job, which I did relatively easily. Both times I consider myself lucky to have been in a position to take a hike. Not everybody is in that position when the ultimatum comes along.

[840high]

19. One black mother just said on Tv that

this was a crime against the children.

[KingCharlemagne]

22. Oh, puh-leeze. No Child Left Behind was and is a crime against the children. Its perps

probably mostly send their progeny to private schools beyond NCLB's reach and will probaby never have to face the consequences of their wretched pandering and corrupt policy making.

[840high]

29. Tell that to the mothers on TV. Another

mother said her child could not read but his scores were high. I don't defend crooks - no matter what profession.

[KingCharlemagne]

32. I'm not 'defending crooks' either, merely pointing out who the real criminals are (the architects

of No Child Left Behind). Or are you arguing that NCLB serves a valid and valuable social purpose?

[840high]

34. I am not defending it.

[appalachiablue]

30. The elite's priviledged progeny are the future 'leaders' who'll be running the country, God help us-

Mobster, gangster teachers in the good old USA on the way to prison. I think I've seen about everything now; time to give it a rest.

[NaturalHigh]

20. We all know that none of them will get 20 years.

Most of them likely won't even go to jail. I have no problem with them being prosecuted, though. They were convicted of crimes for financial gain.

If they had defrauded the government in some other way, say tax evasion, would you still think they shouldn't be prosecuted because they're teachers?

[guillaumeb]

23. Rod Paige was the Sec of Education under George W. Bush

Before that he was Superintendent of schools in Houston Texas. He won fame for the so-called Texas miracle of school improvement. The problem was there was no miracle, only fraud. Paige did not suffer for his lies. I suppose that it pays to be a well connected white Republican male.

See the link below for more:

http://www.inthetrencheswithschoolreform.com/fool-congress-once-but-can-arne-fool-it-twice/

[ND-Dem]

25. +100. Ditto Michele Rhee and a host of others. Including a raft of now closed charter

schools who stole MILLIONS from the feds.

But hey, lets mandate impossible tests that every kid must pass or teachers and admins will be fired and schools closed, and then lets put everyone in jail when they do the expected.

Some people here are showing their slips very clearly.

Pro-privatization anti-labor "democrats". It's the new normal.

[guillaumeb]

28. plus Jeb Bush was heavily invested in school testing

another big moneymaker.

And yes, very few Democratic politicians have anything to say about unions. I remember a certain President who promised that he would lace up his walking shoes and march in Madison Wisconsin if Walker signed the anti-union bill.

He never did make it. I suppose that he could not find those walking shoes.

[ND-Dem]

41. and his little brother, Mr. Neil "(Cash) Cow" Bush.

It's a table! It's a podium! It's a teaching aid!

[F4lconF16]

38. +1 nt

[betsuni]

39. Thank you for that link, very interesting.

[Doctor_J]

44. rod Paige is a white male?

Since when?

I get your point though

[guillaumeb]

50. and I get yours

and should have been more specific in my description.

Thanks

[eppur_se_muova]

46. IOKIYAR, as always.

Thanks for posting this. People need to be reminded of this, over and over.

[bluestateguy]

27. I think they should get probation

I can't condone what they did, but it is a predictable outcome given politicians obsession with standardized testing.

[Orsino]

45. Of course we are. This was all preordained in NCLB.

The architects dismantling public education continue to walk free.

[Trillo]

48. Thanks for telling us.

I do not mean this sarcastically, but it seems the school-to-prison pipeline expanded a bit. It's aways a good time to scale that whole process back. School should never mean a jail sentence for any students or teachers, except the most extreme ones who are being dangerously violent toward others.

[get the red out]

51. Inevitable

With the current "Test-ucation" mentality, where test scores are the most important thing imaginable in the school world; it's like they were "mobsters" because they cheated the almighty test-ucation system.

So sad, it was set up for this to happen. 20 years is simply insane.

[dsc]

52. First of all 20 years would be nuts

but they do deserve some jail. The simple fact is they got bonuses or kept their jobs over other people who didn't cheat because of what they did. As an example if I am teaching 5th grade and a cheater taught the same kids 4th grade, I will be expected to have them score very high on the test like they did in 4th. When they don't presuming I don't cheat, I get the bad scores and fired.

[mfcorey1]

53. The pressure starts at the Department of education and by the time it trickles

down to the teachers, it is insane. There is no excuse for cheating but there is no excuse in the way those in administration start a school year preparing to pass the test. No longer can teachers include critical thinking. They must teach to the test and prevent administrators from being embarrassed with a low performing population. Schools in Florida give their schools an "f" grade if a designated number of students do not score what is deemed a passing grade. Teachers have also been threatened with demotions and job loss if their classes do not have a high percentage. It would seem the racketeering starts at the top. JUST COLLECTING MY THOUGHTS!