ajc | The state's leading expert in racketeering prosecutions has been hired by Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard to assist in the ongoing investigation into test cheating at Atlanta Public Schools, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who has served as a special prosecutor in a number of high-profile cases, is working with the District Attorney's Office as a grand jury investigates the scandal, lawyers familiar with the probe said. The attorneys requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the grand jury proceedings.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act -- or RICO -- is often used by district attorneys to try to prove that a legal business was being used for illegal means. It allows prosecutors to sweep numerous defendants accused of committing various crimes into the same indictment and to allege they were all part of an ongoing enterprise. Racketeering convictions carry stiff punishment of up to 20 years in prison, much longer than what school officials might face under other possible charges.
Both Howard and Floyd declined to comment.
It is unclear how close Howard is to deciding whether to ask the grand jury to hand up indictments in the APS case. It also remains to be seen whether racketeering charges will be sought and, if so, who would be the possible targets. But bringing Floyd into the case shows the charges must be under consideration.
RICO was first enacted to fight corruption and organized crime, but Georgia's law, passed in 1980, has allowed state prosecutors to seek it in cases involving gang leaders, former Cobb EMC chief Dwight Brown, the assisted-suicide group the Final Exit Network and, just recently, former DeKalb schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis.
The Fulton grand jury began investigating the cheating scandal after a scathing report was released in July, concluding a lengthy state investigation into the APS cheating scandal. The report described an enterprise where unethical -- and potentially illegal -- behavior infiltrated every level of the bureaucracy and that "thousands of school children were harmed by widespread cheating."
Three special investigators found cheating on standardized tests occurred at 44 Atlanta schools and involved 178 educators, including 38 principals. The probe was launched after multiple articles in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution raised questions about the validity of APS test score improvements.
"A culture of fear and a conspiracy of silence infected this school system, and kept many teachers from speaking freely about misconduct," the investigators' report said. "From the onset of this investigation, we were confronted by a pattern of interference by top APS leadership in our attempt to gather evidence."
When asked to comment on Floyd's involvement in the case, Mike Bowers, one of the three APS special investigators, said, "I am encouraged that Mr. Howard is getting someone of Mr. Floyd's ability and insight to look at this."
Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who has served as a special prosecutor in a number of high-profile cases, is working with the District Attorney's Office as a grand jury investigates the scandal, lawyers familiar with the probe said. The attorneys requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the grand jury proceedings.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act -- or RICO -- is often used by district attorneys to try to prove that a legal business was being used for illegal means. It allows prosecutors to sweep numerous defendants accused of committing various crimes into the same indictment and to allege they were all part of an ongoing enterprise. Racketeering convictions carry stiff punishment of up to 20 years in prison, much longer than what school officials might face under other possible charges.
Both Howard and Floyd declined to comment.
It is unclear how close Howard is to deciding whether to ask the grand jury to hand up indictments in the APS case. It also remains to be seen whether racketeering charges will be sought and, if so, who would be the possible targets. But bringing Floyd into the case shows the charges must be under consideration.
RICO was first enacted to fight corruption and organized crime, but Georgia's law, passed in 1980, has allowed state prosecutors to seek it in cases involving gang leaders, former Cobb EMC chief Dwight Brown, the assisted-suicide group the Final Exit Network and, just recently, former DeKalb schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis.
The Fulton grand jury began investigating the cheating scandal after a scathing report was released in July, concluding a lengthy state investigation into the APS cheating scandal. The report described an enterprise where unethical -- and potentially illegal -- behavior infiltrated every level of the bureaucracy and that "thousands of school children were harmed by widespread cheating."
Three special investigators found cheating on standardized tests occurred at 44 Atlanta schools and involved 178 educators, including 38 principals. The probe was launched after multiple articles in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution raised questions about the validity of APS test score improvements.
"A culture of fear and a conspiracy of silence infected this school system, and kept many teachers from speaking freely about misconduct," the investigators' report said. "From the onset of this investigation, we were confronted by a pattern of interference by top APS leadership in our attempt to gather evidence."
When asked to comment on Floyd's involvement in the case, Mike Bowers, one of the three APS special investigators, said, "I am encouraged that Mr. Howard is getting someone of Mr. Floyd's ability and insight to look at this."
38 comments:
These teachers are in a catch 22 and I believe this is what Bush and Obama hoped for. These scandals will enhance their push for privatized public school education. I see that 40 public schools are being closed in Philly.
Good.
They cost waaaaay too much to operate on a per pupil basis, the revenues are not being directed toward student education, but rather toward a top-heavy, incompetent, and self-serving administration. Close more and do better with the monies and the profound responsibility vested in educating these children.
It's not that simple. I don't believe that the public can do much better, but I'm feeling much the same way about the private sector. The third option, which had defined education in NYC for about four decades, was community control of schools. In that instance, there was an uneasy partnership between the community and the public sector. The city government provided buildings, a municipal union provided teachers and principals who were certified as competent by the government, etc., etc. But the well has been poisoned.
Schools cost too much to run. Educators, though, are not having discussions on a daily basis about how children learn - about how the brain works, about developmentally appropriate design, about the impact of physical space on learning. It happens in pockets, but not at scale. At scale, the INTERESTS of publishing companies/testing companies has intruded in and shaped this conversation for at least 8 decades.
We're back to the Cartesian framework and questions of evidence.
Schools are being closed now because there is a buyer for the RIGHT to manage that space on a private, for-profit basis. This option could have been explored on a larger basis decades ago, but city managers preferred to maintain poor schools in poor neighborhoods because it allowed them to curry favor with the teachers union. The impact and relative power of those unions has declined, I believe, in part to due changing demographics. The shift in land/real estate and neighborhood demographics has meant an influx of parents with the $$ to pay either for private schools OR to create demand for more high-performing public schools in specific neighborhoods. In either case, these changes create horizontal pressure for high-quality teachers and administrators to exit low-performing schools without having to flee for the suburbs. Add to the mix the aging of urban residents, and we see new populations who are not tethered to teachers unions. They're not all Democrats.
City managers in Philadelphia, DC and New York haven't blinked about closing low-performing schools in Black communities because it serves their purposes now. They have not been able to provide a superior product in most instances. The product is typically about the same or worse, but the shift imposes the pain of shifting public dollars to private hands. The extent to which the public benefits, on a cash basis, from this transfer is negligible. The benefits should presumably be paid out in the outcomes of student performance and capacity to contribute to the society as graduates.
The school closure process has neither been neat nor has it been conducted consistently in the best interest of kids. I would certainly agree that many schools SHOULD be closed, but the solution involves a great deal of work beyond mere closure.
Of course the economics of public education is up for grabs - and - it's the primary driver of what happens at scale.
The benefits should presumably be paid out in the outcomes of student
performance and capacity to contribute to the society as graduates.
realistically, schools still do what schools have always done - but ever since black managerial and professional class demography denied opportunity in other venues began its exodus from public education in droves 3-4 generations ago - the decline of quality was inevitable. Take that in conjunction with increasing poverty, bastardy, and ghettoization (the death of broad valuation of education as the means to escape) and you have a formula for irremediable failure in urban public schools.
These attenuated schools can't effectively teach what isn't valued and amplified in homes or what nowadays passes for the same.
The school closure process has neither been neat nor has it been conducted consistently in the best interest of kids.
Tragically and shockingly little of what is done with, to, and within urban public schools is done in the best interest of kids. But that's a fact that has to be overwhelmingly laid at the feet of the increasingly incompetent 2nd/3rd line inheritor administrators who've FUBAR'd the systems/institutions over which they've held charge for 4 decades.
Good—Cnu
Good for whom?
They cost waaaaay too much to operate on a per pupil basis—Cnu
Way too much in what context? Like 2 percent of the federal budget--$68 billion in FY2013 v $88 billion for wars? LOL
Close more and do better with the monies and the profound responsibility vested in educating these children.—Cnu
Please explain how they are supposed to do this within the context of the requirements of “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top.”
http://blackagendareport.com/content/glen-ford-corporate-assault-public-education
Public schools should be paid for by local property taxes and not Federal stimulus and Title funds. Schools that reject federal funds, or are ineligible for federal funds, somehow manage to get by. No federal funding, no federal "teach to the test" compliance requirements.
There goes the 2% of the federal budget tit-for-tat, there goes the unconstitutionality of federal involvement with education, there goes the problem of mandated drill killing childrens' love of learning and instead teaching critical thinking skills.
Of course, that only works with kids who receive learning reinforcement and cultural reinforcement at home. If home is chaotic, doesn't value learning, has no positive recollection of school, etc, etc, etc...., then it's all just wasted effort and all just money down the drain. What's worse, the presence of such children in schools, compromises the safety of other children and drastically interferes with and undermines the educational experience of those children who have those reinforcements at home and are in attendance to learn and to use education as a means of trying to escape poverty.
I agree with you, but it doesn't change the facts on the ground. The exodus is a big factor.
Inequity in education systems is precipitated by funding formulas. Within most states, Black folk haven't had the political capital since before the Hayes-Tilden Compromise to establish even remotely equitable funding formulas for schools. Black folk have been outnumbered in state legislatures, and given limitations to capital, credit, etc. that most Black counties and their residents have been subjected to, the property tax route has been a declining spiral. White southerners rejected the Blair Bill proposed by Mass. congressman Henry Blair that would have increased funding for southern schools, on a racially equitable basis over a century ago. Property tax funding allows for disparate educational funding based on disparate accumulated wealth, capital access, credit access and repayment terms, and a host of other factors that adversely impact Black kids.
The intervention of the federal government was definitely a dual-pronged attack intended to nationalize curriculum (among other things). And the impact has mostly been with respect to marginal greed. Educators want to get every dollar on the table. And, in doing so, they make major concessions for just a few dollars that they don't really need. But, it's easier for them to apply for federal funds than it is to do the hard work of sculpting an efficient program. The monetary impact of Title I has been negligible over 4 decades. Title I has been largely level-funded (in real dollar terms) for most of that time. Levels increased a bit during Clinton's time, but he signed off on the bill before NCLB which also created a number of restrictions that have escaped close scrutiny.
Here's the thing magne, if you and I both know that the exodus is a big factor, and not liable to be reversed unless this Greatest Depression becomes even more severe and reverses aspects of the exodus (but how can that happen without further undermining peak government funding for schools?) - so essentially - reverse exodus NOT GONNA HAPPEN.
What we're left with is throwing good money after bad.
I know too many teachers now from African, caribbean, and south asian points of origin to believe for even an instant that funding is determinative of education outcomes. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no......, in the 21st century, those folks would've killed for the resources that were normative in 1950's era segregated schools.
Determination is determinative of education outcomes and until and unless the change gonna come in the culture and priorities of folk who do not presently value and prioritize education, then no amount of funding can fix the root cause of these less than desirable outcomes.
Agreed. Simple, but well put. However, under the private apparatus we're talking about passing through value-added funds as profits to private hands. Low operating costs don't necessarily get fueled into the types of high-investment learning centers that would happen under public scenarios like the Stuyvesant/Bronx Science type public schools. There is a way to make that work well, but scaling it up while managing the "greed imperative" under both pub/pri scenarios is the challenge. There is more than enough cheese to feed every fat rat, but some folks are just OOC.
Shall we call this the use of performance enhancing drugs?
"They’re the A students, sometimes the B students, who are trying to get good grades," said one senior at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, a Philadelphia suburb, who said he makes hundreds of dollars a week selling prescription drugs, usually priced at $5 to $20 per pill, to classmates as young as freshmen. "They’re the quote-unquote good kids, basically."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47751459/ns/health-the_new_york_times/
What are the odds of this demographic group being targeted for arrests and felony convictions?
OBTW, Louisiana, the nation’s leader in private prisons is making a big push for privatized education.
http://news.yahoo.com/louisianas-bold-bid-privatize-schools-220651571.htmlhttp://www.nola.com/prisons/
Oops, forgot to link the piece on prisons:
http://www.nola.com/prisons/
I am sure this post has touched all the internet users, its
really really pleasant post on building up new webpage.
Here is my web page auto insurance savings
An intriguing discussion is worth comment. There's no doubt that that you ought to publish more about this subject, it may not be a taboo matter but typically people do not discuss these subjects. To the next! All the best!!
Also see my web site - california health insurance quotes
Usually I don't learn article on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very compelled me to take a look at and do so! Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thank you, very great article.
My site http://wiki.fastzep.Scholtz.Sk/
Do you have any video of that? I'd care to find out more details.
Here is my web site ... Bo Peep Costume
I've been browsing online greater than three hours these days, but I by no means found any interesting article like yours. It's beautiful value sufficient for me.
In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made just right content as you probably did,
the net can be a lot more useful than ever before.
my blog post ... http://research.calit2.net/
When I originally commented I clicked the "Notify me when new comments are added" checkbox and
now each time a comment is added I get four e-mails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove me from that service?
Many thanks!
my page; www.openio.nl
When I initially commented I clicked the "Notify me when new comments are added" checkbox and now each
time a comment is added I get several e-mails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks a lot!
my website shopping reviews
Wow, marvelous blog layout! How long have
you been blogging for? you made blogging look easy.
The overall look of your site is magnificent, let alone the
content!
Review my web site :: Strontium supplement
Also see my web site > http://www.entropik.fr/
I'd like to thank you for the efforts you have put in penning this site. I'm hoping to view the
same high-grade blog posts by you later on as well. In truth,
your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own website
now ;)
Take a look at my web page ... coffee maker
The story continues...
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/beverly-hall-34-others-indicted-in-atlanta-schools/nW7mX/
It is not my first time to go to see this website, i
am visiting this site dailly and obtain pleasant data from here everyday.
Here is my web blog http://www.goldandgoldcoins.com/necessary-elements-in-modcloth-coupons-across-the-usa/
Really no matter if someone doesn't know after that its up to other people that they will assist, so here it occurs.
Look at my blog Indian Women
I visited multiple websites except the audio quality
for audio songs current at this site is in fact superb.
Feel free to surf to my homepage :: vintage clothing in Nashville tennessee
Thankfulness to my father who told me regarding this weblog, this webpage is
genuinely remarkable.
Stop by my web site Share Group
Hi! I know this is kinda off topic but I'd figured I'd ask.
Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest writing a blog article or vice-versa?
My website addresses a lot of the same subjects as yours and I
believe we could greatly benefit from each other. If you are interested
feel free to shoot me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you!
Awesome blog by the way!
Feel free to visit my weblog - http://www.cheaphighheels.net/trendy-clothes-for-women/
Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely well written article.
I will be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful info.
Thanks for the post. I will certainly return.
my blog post - http://www.acoustichangout.com/islamic-womens-clothing-abaya-shopping-online/
I was recommended this website by my cousin. I'm not sure whether this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed about my trouble. You are amazing! Thanks!
Also visit my web blog :: http://analfucks.Xxx/blogs/entry/be-a-fashion-retail-mogul-using-wholesale
This is a very good tip particularly to those fresh to the blogosphere.
Simple but very precise information… Many thanks for sharing
this one. A must read article!
Feel free to surf to my homepage ... http://azonbundlereview.com/top-5-coolest-indie-clothing-online-stores/
Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board and I find It truly useful & it helped me
out much. I hope to give something back and help others like you helped me.
Here is my blog ... http://vixenlights.com/wiki/index.php?title=Glamorous_Women_s_Clothing_For_Over_40
Amazing issues here. I'm very satisfied to peer your post. Thanks so much and I am taking a look forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a e-mail?
My homepage visit the following post
Today, while I was at work, my sister stole my apple ipad and
tested to see if it can survive a 40 foot
drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My iPad is now broken and she has 83 views.
I know this is completely off topic but I had to share it with
someone!
Visit my page http://myinsanestories.com/trendy-clothing-that-introduces-the-strong-bohemian-style.html
I'm impressed, I have to admit. Rarely do I come across a blog that's
both educative and interesting, and without a doubt, you've hit the nail on the head. The issue is something which not enough men and women are speaking intelligently about. I'm very happy
I came across this during my hunt for something concerning this.
my blog; Suggested internet page
So what would I do with myself. People say that it will justify her coming back to you is nothing get a girlfriend more important than verbal communication when it comes to attraction.
Getting emotional in-tune with the girl in a disguised
way. You see, when she became a crime get a girlfriend victim.
You can have the same question too but it was as important to learn how to speak to you again.
Also visit my blog :: howtogetagirlefriend.com
Bodily injury coverage is part of responsibility automobile insurance in case they're revealed to be responsible for paying in the event of an accident. The participants may include medical and dental clinics, physical therapists, orthopedic and medical supply companies, and also making outright annual payments instead of issuing the usual monthly fees. You have the chance to secure cheap car insurance policy does shell out enough to fix your car. Each company will have their own rules with regard to your personal insurance needs. The number of drivers in your home address.
My homepage ... auto insurance
Of course, a good credit counselor non-profit who can help
you lessen rates. Second, ask about consolidate credit card and
stick to the financial plan that is drawn up
for you. Bills consolidate credit card to keep an
eye on the monthly payments. They do have long term implications!
That is instead of trying to pay all your debts into
one. What is a Government-Backed Debt Consolidation Loan.
my weblog :: consolidate payday loans *harrieterwin.bravesites.com*
Post a Comment