As Hall personally profited, she and other administrators are accused of so inflating scores that one school no longer qualified for $750,000 in state and federal aid. In other words, the superintendent of the year was attacking the children she was charged with helping. That’s certainly worth a visit to the White House! Hall’s indictment charged her with racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements. Prosecutors recommended a $7.5 million bond for her and she faces up to 45 years in prison.
The important things to note are that (a) similar scandals have appeared in many other urban school districts, and (b) Hall and the Atlanta school staff stonewalled all investigations by the media and Georgia authorities. Hall stood in the hallways and physically blocked investigators who wanted to question teachers, and several blue-ribbon commissions comprising Atlanta officials (the most recent in August, 2010) found no systematic cheating in the schools.Â
Finally, Georgia’s Republican Governor Sonny Perdue appointed two special prosecutors and gave them subpoena powers and a substantial budget to uncover the already widely suspected cheating. Why did it take such special effort to uncover what should have been obvious? Because everyone has bought into the idea that administrators like New York’s Joel Klein and Washington’s Michelle Rhee can raise inner-city test scores through insisting on strict standards and firing inadequate teachers. No need to change social and economic conditions in urban environments — just hire tough, no-nonsense superintendents! (Michelle Rhee, who despite being fired in DC remains the hero of this movement, has been the subject of recurrent investigations of cheating with which she refuses to cooperate, while official commissions continuouly exonerate her — as they did Hall.)
I don’t know about you, but I’m sure American education is in good hands and I’m so proud of the progress being reported.
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