New Newsworks Post: Why School Boards Shouldn’t Have a Say in Charter School Authorization
May 29, 2014QTD: Cami Anderson says She’s Staying in Newark
May 30, 2014Lakewood Update
In today’s Newsworks column I refer to Lakewood Public Schools as an example of the “tyranny of the majority.” Today the Asbury Park Press reports that, in addition to a budget hole of $5 million, Lakewood may also have to reimburse the state and federal governments for another $6 million for falsifying grant proposals. Among the charges itemized in the DOE’s Office of Fiscal Accountability are:
• The district could not provide a list of recipients or an explanation why 760 iPad laptops were purchased with more than $468,000 in federal Title I funds;
• Questions about how the district spent Title I funds in at least eight other instances, including failing to provide records about the payment of $1 million to the Tree of Knowledge, which provides instructional services to private school students; and
• The district appears to have inflated its enrollment figures, leading to an overpayment of $2.3 million in state funds.
1 Comment
Lakewood is actually an example of a few clever people gaming a system without adequate self-regulating protocols. Similar outcomes can also be seen in at least one Orange County, New York district.