The Education Wars

At bottom Proposition 13 is responsible for the dismal state of California's public schools; the current budget mess just exacerbates it.
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Not all administrators get away with committing felonies such as altering public documents.

They did in my case when one of two people altered a copy of a letter I received in the mail concerning the FMLA forms in order to deceive the hearing officer, but so far the culprit has gotten away with it.

School districts will stick up for these crooks for the most part. The Atlanta case is very rare in that arrests have been made, not that such flagrant cheating happens, despite the union's contention:

Former Dekalb County principal James Berry was arrested at his home on
charges of altering public documents, a felony. His assistant principal
Dorothea Alexander faces the same charges.

Berry, the former principal of Atherton Elementary, left the county jail
Friday evening without commenting to reporters gathered outside. A jail
official said his bond was $15,000. Alexander was released earlier
Friday on $1,500 bond.

A state investigation released last week found that student scores on
state math tests were altered at four schools in the state, including
Atherton, in an effort to boost those schools' performance. Officials do
not believe students were involved.

Jeff Hubbard, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, said
this is the first time he's heard of teachers or administrators being
arrested for such offenses.

"This is one of the worst academic offenses an educator can do or be
accused of because it messes with a child's future," Hubbard said.

It's done all over the country, though, and there are principals who try to pressure teachers into cheating as well. It happened to me, and I ended up with a destroyed career because the asshole retaliated.

Here is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's article:

Dr. Gary Walker, director of educator ethics for the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, agreed that this case could be a first.

“I’m not saying there hasn’t been one, but I don’t know of it,” Walker said.

His agency, which oversees teacher certification, routinely receives complaints related to testing. “We’ll see them every month,” Walker said.

Of course it goes on, and all over the country. It is extremely rare crooked administrators get caught; teachers very seldom say anything for fear of being blacklisted for future jobs. In this case, an audit caught the cheating.
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Arne Duncan is at it again.
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