A bombast, a proto-felon and a socialist

An example of the type of governance which so enrages the electorate and yet which the existing political class cannot see for the blinders of their own self-interest of go-along and get-along insider horse trading.

The City of Atlanta Public School systems endured the multi-year humiliation of systemic and organized cheating on the part of its administration to hide how poorly the students were doing. Several dozen teachers, administrators and principals were involved. Notoriously there were cheating parties where school employees ate pizza and worked on changing answers on tests. The mayor's office and business community did their best to sweep the whole affair under the rug but it eventually came out and the State took on the burden of bringing the truth to the tax-paying public. Many people resigned. The affair culminated with the conviction and sentencing of eleven teachers, principals and administrators on April 1, 2015.

A new superintendent was brought in to clean house. But that wasn't the end of the cheating. In a June 12, 2015 report from the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Another Atlanta high school principal is under scrutiny for allegations of improper grade manipulation.

Atlanta Public Schools has asked prosecutors to look into the case of former Carver School of Technology principal Josie Love whom the school district’s investigators allege awarded students grades they didn’t deserve.

The school system referred cases involving Love and assistant principal Yolanda McKee to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office late Thursday, soon after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News began questioning the district about grading at Carver. APS also referred their cases to the state agency overseeing teacher licensure on Thursday.

[snip]

They all allegedly took place after the Atlanta test-cheating scandal came to light and after district officials pledged to clean up a culture of corruption at APS. The grade changes at Carver took place even while former APS educators were on trial for cheating involving state standardized tests.

[snip]

The allegations at Carver first came to light when Carver secretary Rolanda Veal reported the grading problems to a district administrator.

Veal later lost her job when Love abolished her position, but APS investigators found that she had not been the victim of retaliation. She said APS officials have told her she can apply for other jobs in the district.

A school Principal so stupid that she changed students grades at exactly the same time as dozens of others are being investigated, resigning and being prosecuted. A system that retaliated against a whistle blower and then denied, without blinking, that they had retaliated.

In this morning's newspaper there is an update on this noxious case.

An Atlanta high school principal involved in a grade-changing scandal will become a director in Atlanta Public Schools’ human resources office.

As principal of Carver School of Technology, Josie Love in 2015 ordered a secretary to award dozens of students grades they had not earned.

The students had been taught by substitutes and had not received grades. Love told the secretary to give them all Bs for the semester. The secretary refused, saying it would be unethical. Other staff entered the grades and Love eliminated the secretary’s position at the end of the year, when Carver School of Technology merged with another school.

The Atlanta school board voted Monday night unanimously to make Love the new strategic director for human resources for high schools.

In her new position, Love will take the lead on actions affecting high school employees, according to a district job description. Her new job duties include helping with terminating and hiring staff and assisting with hiring new principals, according to the description.

Simply Kafkaesque. Any citizen would have been fired if not prosecuted for failing to execute their responsibilities, for failing to educate their students, and for breaking the law. Instead, as an insider, Love continues in her employment and is rewarded with another senior position.

And the APS employee who did the right thing and blew the whistle?

Rolanda Veal, the secretary who complained about Love’s actions, is still looking for a new position within the school district. Hiring Love as a human resources director doesn’t seem fair, she said.

“I’m just disheartened,” she said. “They keep finding positions for her.”

This is simply moral bankruptcy of the first order. No wonder the masses are revolting.

Lest this be seen as atypical in any way, recall the absurdity of the similar case at the once prestigious University of North Carolina. See my post, Ms. Boxill is now director of UNC’s Parr Center for Ethics for the despicable details. The UNC cheating coordinator was promoted to become Director of the Parr Center for Ethics.

The electorate is not stupid. They would just as soon not waste time with governance but when the elected political elite becomes so divorced from both reality and ethical behavior, then there tends to be ill-considered reaction. How else might one interpret the current field of three presidential candidates which includes a bombast, a proto-felon and a socialist. Apparently the electorate is playing with the minds of the vested powers.