Scheming Institutionalized

April 2, 2013

It now seems that more than one school district in the area was involved in manipulating student grade levels to avoid state and federal sanctions.  Other local districts are conducting investigations to see if they too were involved.

At the high school level the technique seems to have been to reduce the number of children from the 10th grade whose English language skills were deemed to have been substandard.  Evidently some students were placed in the 9th grade for a while and then promoted to the 11th grade.  According to news reports some were sent away (taken out of school).

It appears that the testing occurred in the 10th grade.  I guess that we don’t have enough money to check to see that all of our grade levels are performing to standard.

Without for a minute trying to defend the people who manipulated the system, some questions come to mind:

How should a school be evaluated when a foreign language student enrolls in the school without having attended the first through the 9th grades in the school district?  Has the student had time to learn English?

Are there special tests for students arriving from foreign countries?

Should grade level placement of the student be decided by the administrators based upon the individual student’s capabilities?

At what point does self preservation (keeping your job by doing what your boss asks you to do even when you disagree) kick in?

On the other hand, the situation shows us how government employees (not just educators) get together to learn strategies from each other that help to subvert the intent of the rules.  The El Paso Independent School District not releasing the draft report of the cheating audit was probably the result of an administrator or lawyer learning from some other agency how to avoid releasing the document by calling it a “draft”.

I have to wonder how many other schools around the country have been involved in similar efforts to “bend the rules”.

Too often I get the feeling that it is government employees versus the “crazies”.

Eternal vigilance is the cost of liberty.

Cato

1 Comment | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government, Open Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Release the audit

March 31, 2013

The El Paso Independent School District is in the process of either firing or not renewing the contracts for several employees.  Careers are at stake.

While the district is being quiet about the who’s and why’s, we are being led to believe that these personnel actions are related to the district accountability scandal.

The district paid $800,000 dollars for an external audit of the issue.  The report is categorized by the board as a “draft”.  The open records rules in Texas allow governments to avoid releasing “drafts” of documents.

Is the information in the audit accurate?  Are the findings going to change?  Should the board take action based on a preliminary report?

My suspicion is that the report is only a “draft” as a matter of convenience to the district.  To me this is the same kind of “bending of the rules” that the employees are accused of.

The public and the people involved deserve to know what is in the report.  Citizens are upset about what some are calling a “witch hunt”, yet they do not know what has been found.

Can we get down to the facts on this issue?

It is nice to be able to agree with the Times on this subject.  Read their editorial here.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Cato

Leave a Comment » | El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Stop the presses!

March 22, 2013

Headline article!

Lawyer Attempts To Contact Congressman, Thinks Client Is Being Abused by Government

To think!  Right here in El Paso!  Thinking about asking your representative for help — of all the things!

Where is law enforcement when you need them?

A current county commissioner says he does not recall any contact.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

I would rather the Times write about the school district and it’s lawyer without implicating an ex-congressman and a current county commissioner over something that evidently did not happen and even if it did happen would in itself have been appropriate.

We deserve better

Brutus

Leave a Comment » | County Government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Reporting and preaching should not go together

March 17, 2013

The following is my opinion:

The El Paso Times published a front-page article today (March 17, 2013) about the first person convicted in one of the public corruption scandals that the Times has chosen to cover.

The guy pleaded guilty to doing some rotten things.  It appears that he did not go to prison.  It looks like he became a stool-pigeon and the general government may have let him off the hook.

I am glad the Times chose to cover the issue.  The article was informative.  It was news.  It was also pious, judgmental, and condescending.

The article was biased throughout.

As an example, they wrote “His surroundings demonstrated that he’d come down in the world since he’d left El Paso.  His office is in a small, humble building next to a vacant grain elevator and across from the Bexar County Detention Center.  The area is dotted with bail-bonds businesses, taco stands, TV and refrigerator-repair shops and “No Trespassing” signs — not exactly the milieu of a big-city power broker.

I guess businesses might be ok but the Times thinks bail bondsmen are pretty low.

I guess restaurants are ok but taco stands are pretty low.

I guess some repair shops are ok but TV and refrigerator ones are pretty low.

I guess the Times thinks that anyone who has a job working for the government is pretty important.  That might explain some obvious things that they are overlooking.

I would appreciate it if the Times would stick to the facts and let the readers draw their own conclusions.

The Times has an editorial page for this kind of commentary.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Cato

3 Comments | County Government, El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Heads I win, tails you lose

January 29, 2013

Our local governments have been giving away the store.

This example is a proposed lease of a parking lot that the city seems to think that they need for either the new city hall or the 801 Texas building (even though they told us that they would not need this parking lot.  See No parking zone.)  The landlord is the railroad company that also owns the train tracks next to city hall.

This is a ten year lease.  The amount to be paid will automatically increase by 3% each year, compounded.

Many leases tie their rate increases to the Consumer Price Index that is published by the general government.  The published number changes each year and for the last ten years has been beneath 3% — it was even negative one of those years.

Why give away 3% in advance?  Maybe because you think that inflation will come back with a vengence during the 10 year lease and locking in a mere 3% is smart business.

Then why does the lease let the landlord “redetermine” the rent every 3 years?  The landlord wins either way!

Are they competent to manage our money?

Or could it be that as FedUp wrote yesterday that this is a way to give the landlord a blank check for something else?  Rumor has it that the new ball park will require building over the sunken train way that is next to it.  Some say the site is not large enough for a ball park without building on top of the train way.

Is leasing this parking lot part of they way the city plans to pay the railroad for the right to build structures over the train way?

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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