Langston Hughes Charter School victim of fraud (New Orleans) $674K

[Hannah Bell]

Right after the KIPP Texas theft case for nearly $1 million, too. Details of that one here:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/81414412.html


Seems awfully easy to steal big money from these charter schools.




New Orleans - The first Orleans Parish school to open post Katrina is a victim of employee theft - that's according to a fraud audit released Wednesday.

The audit alleges the former business manager for Langston Hughes Charter School stole almost $674,000 dollars.

This alleged theft happened over the course of a year and a few months. The business manager - Kelly Thompson - allegedly either withdrew cash or wrote fraudulent checks to herself 162 times.

In November, that initial audit showed the missing money.

Langston Hughes fired Thompson, local officers arrested her and the FBI opened a federal investigation that continues today.

http://www.fox8live.com/news/local/story/Langston-Hughes-Charter-School-victim-of-fraud/PJhfbQebh0K_kJh-kgx3ug.cspx

[sandnsea]

1. That happened to 2 non-profits in my town

The women's center and the boys & girls club. Maybe it's the economy? Too weird.

[Hannah Bell]

2. i guess it's all right then. it's just the economy. nothing to do with lack of financial regs &

reporting at charter schools.

[sandnsea]

3. This stuff happens to all sorts of organizations

If you want to be taken seriously you have to mark serious arguments. Find a reputable study that compares embezzlement from charter schools to public schools. Then you have a case. Otherwise you've just got an interesting news article, one among thousands.

And you hurt your anti-charter cause because people now know that you'll say anything to slander charter schools.

[Hannah Bell]

4. actually two in one month, both for nearly $1 million. but who's counting?

i don't think there are any studies comparing embezzlement rates between charter schools & public schools, but if you've got some on tap, i'll be happy to take a look.

but in fact, i doubt anyone much is interested in the comparison, because the PTB have already decided to privatize, & collecting truthful stats is not in their interest.

[sandnsea]

5. Wow, we should close public schools!!!

Based on your criteria for accountability. This was just a quick look on 2 pages of google.

The audit concluded that the district’s former business manager, Kathy Borrego, embezzled $3,378,701.27 from the district’s bank accounts from January 8, 2002 through June 4, 2009, according to a news release today from State Auditor Hector Balderas.
http://newmexicoindependent.com/34069/special-audit-reveals-3-3-million-embezzled-from-small-n-m-school-district

Douglas Benit, who was an assistant superintendent in Ecorse until 2003, has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for persuading the district to award contracts to his company. Benit concealed his affiliation with Coral Technology while getting more than $2 million in school contracts.
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2009/03/former_willow_run_superintende_1.html

Former Delaware Valley Regional superintendent to be sentenced for embezzlement
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/former_delaware_valley_regiona.html

• In Michigan, Superintendents or Board members stole over $8 million, in five districts.
• In Arkansas, over 7 years, a secretary/data analyst stole $884,000.
• In New York, $11 million was embezzled by Superintendents in 2 school districts
• In Colorado, a Superintendent and CFO took $2.25 million
• In Missouri, a gambling-addicted Superintendent helped himself to $850,000
• In North Carolina, 2 school districts were raided for $2.2 million
• In Illinois, $1.5 was misappropriated
• In Utah, a part-time secretary and a contract pilfered $5 million
http://www.ncrp.org/blog/2009_02_01_blogarchive.html

[Hannah Bell]

6. 3 million in 6 years? what a piker.

ps: that list, which goes 7+-years back & co-mingles bad investments with outright embezzlement, is pretty weak. i hope you can do better than that.

[sandnsea]

7. Millions embezzled all over the country

And you still can't admit you're just wrong. But the so-called liberals on this board are supposedly the ones who are reality-based and think. ha.

[Hannah Bell]

8. i didn't deny a thing. i just said, your list is pretty weak. & it is.

tell you what, you make a list of public school embezzlement 2009-2010 & i'll make one of charter school embezzlement. Then we'll total the $$ and adjust for charters being a smaller group of schools than public ones, educating a smaller % of students, & we'll see what the results are.

we can do that study ourselves!

[sandnsea]

9. Knock yourself out

Use the links I already provided. My point has been made. Embezzlement happens all over the place.

[Hannah Bell]

10. yes, it does. now let's test the degree to which it happens. on the basis of my admittedly

non-conclusive googling, looks to me like public school fraud generally involves lower amounts over longer time periods.

& there's a reason this would be so. public schools typically have a bureaucratic financial procedure where multiple people oversee the money.

whereas charters don't, necessarily. their financial procedures are more likely to be - idiosyncratic, let's say.

because, you know, they don't have to work with all that pesky red tape.

well, if you don't wish to take part in the study, perhaps i'll have to do it myself. i just thought you might want to, you know, to make sure charters got represented fairly by a non-partisan person like yourself.

[sandnsea]

11. Millions are GONE

Who fucking cares how all that money got gone. It's gone. There's no utopia. There are always going to be thieves. The best you can do with any bookkeeping system is have checks and balances and oversight. Sometimes it fails. That's all there is to it.

I'm working. I work all the time. I have web site clients who need 2010 price updates, others have new PR campaigns, others want advertising, plus my own sites that I update several times a day. I don't have time to play this silly game with you.

[Hannah Bell]

12. i thought you were interested in hard research. now i find it's enough to show some money's

gone.

fine, then don't bother criticising when i post stories, like this one, showing a couple million "gone" in two schools in the last year.

or people might think you're biased.

precisely my point, btw, about checks & balances. the reason charters are able to steal a million in a year is because some are semi-personal fiefdoms & don't have such "checks & balances".

because, ya know, that pesky red tape stuff keeps them from being innovative. like with the money.

[sandnsea]

13. I gave you a group that does the research

And you just keep making shit up. Maybe you're drunk, I don't know. cya.

[Hannah Bell]

14. that list wasn't "research". research = making a valid comparison.

like you said initially, but now renege on.

btw, i don't drink.