The rot of privatization and the corruption it drags with it on its shoe can be found on display once again in Detroit where school officials, nepotism, sexual dalliances and privatization team up to defraud taxpayers, teachers and students by diverting public funds to private corporations for anything but authentic education. Meanwhile the larceny is wreaking havoc on our children as schools close, educational programs are being cut, students are tested literally to ‘death’ and the privatized fornicators of the public interests are allowed out of their ‘day rooms’.
In the latest news we find that a former department chief at Detroit Public Schools and his assistant used secret offices and their own computer system to improperly divert more than $57 million in school funds to vendors who provided little, if anything, in return. This according to the Detroit Free Press, March 28th, 2010 (DPS: Scam cost $57M FBI investigates ex-risk manager; district sues to recover money”, Freep.com, JENNIFER DIXON,March 28th, 2010, http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100328/NEWS01/3280515/1318/FBI-investigates-ex-risk-manager-for-DPS-district-sues-to-get-money&template=fullarticle)
In documents revealed in a Wayne County Circuit Court lawsuit brought by Detroit Public Schools (DPS), the allegations contained within the suit alleges that Stephen Hill of Detroit — director of DPS risk management from 2001-05 — received luxury vehicles and other kickbacks while ‘performing his duties’. Some of the vendors, or better yet corporations, who benefited were friends or associates of Hill’s or relatives of Hill’s assistant, Christina Polk-Osumah of Detroit. The nepotism, the corruption and the outright theft of public finds diverted to privatized entities or ‘vendors’ as they are known in the vernacular of the bureaucrats just keeps piling up like manure in the economically ravished city (See my article on Detroit Teachers fight obsequious politicians, http://dailycensored.com/2010/02/14/detroit-teachers-fight-back/).
In keeping with the ethics of the New Gilded Age of our times, when Stephen Hill left the district in September 2005, he received a champagne-and-tenderloin farewell bash that cost the impoverished school system $40,000, according to the suit. Meanwhile while the caviar wasd plated and the Champagne was chilling Detroit teachers received lay off notices, their schools were closed and their students were thrown to the wolves. No matter, personal gain under the auspices of “helping to prepare students for the new Global economy” can be expensive and lavish and these functionaries for capital actually believe they are deserving of the ‘bennies’ they receive. They are actually that arrogant and delusional.
Much more
This is the original piece from the Detroit Free Press:
As chief of risk management for Detroit Public Schools, Stephen Hill's job was to save the district money.
But as Hill left his post in September 2005, saving money was not on the menu.
The 200 guests at his going-away bash, a golf-themed affair atop a parking deck, feasted on Chilean sea bass, grilled petite tenderloin of beef and bananas foster, washing it all down with champagne, Jack Daniels, martinis and imported beer.
The tab: $40,000.
Who paid: Detroit's impoverished public schools.
The allegations about the party are contained in thousands of pages of documents in a DPS lawsuit that portrays Hill and Polk-Osumah, as running a shadowy side operation outside the scrutiny of district leaders.
As the lawsuit proceeds to trial in July, the $40,000 reportedly spent on Hill's party is hardly the worst of it.
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