Today the judge will hand out sentences to 10 of the teachers and administrators convicted in the Atlanta Schools Cheating Scandal. Throw the book at 'em, I say. A twenty-year jail sentence is probably excessive, but they knew what they were doing and the way they did it, including intimidation and threats to possible whistle-blowers, is covered under the RICO law. At least two years in jail is appropriate; maybe more.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/04/13/atlanta-teachers-to-be-sentenced-in-test-cheating-case/?tid=hybrid_linearcol_3_na
I disagree with giving them any more than a year. I dont condone their behavior, but I see folks from Enron, Wall Street, and rapists get less time than they are facing, there is a serious problem with our judicial system! Our economy almost collapsed, many retirees have lost their entire life savings, and current retirees can barely find a decent return on their savings. I wont even go into the light sentences handed out other criminals, so yes they should be punished, but 1 year, or so, and let them out.
Without real jail sentences, this entire trial would be a farce. It is important to send a clear message to all the others who were lucky not be caught doing the same exact thing, and probably for a long time.
The Wall Street felons robbed money from people. Egregious as the might be, money is a fungible commodity. Robbing the next generations of a real education deserves a higher standard. The kids get only one change at a clean and workable process. Those people have no excuse and do not deserve the support they have received.
I agree, one year at max. However, I would expand the inquiry. I think many teachers are doing similar things. Not on this scale, but similar in nature.
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Once you inject a race card, any discussion is hopeless.
The plea deals that are being offered are too easy on them. They should have to do some real time in the state jail not this weekend thing and/or home confinement that is being offered.
I was wondering if they are women, and though a brief search didn’t turn up a complete list of names, at least some of them are.
Why is it that Martha Stewart did time for insider trading, when few if any men have been sentenced for such things? None of the scumbag banksters have done any time at all.
This has all the making of a farce developing. The convicted ones did not accept a deal before. Now they are presented with yet another deal and the judge is giving them more time to “negotiate” and this points to harsher sentences than the sweetheart deals.
I do not believe in jail time for the vast majority of non-violent crime- this included. There are clearly systemic failures and I think this a representation of that.
^ I am not sure you have checked the nature of the convictions of those teachers. It is not a case of confiscating the bologna sandwiches of a student. Schools officials going to jail is not that rare.
Fwiw, just over 50 percent of the people in state prison are violent criminals. In the federal system, the percentage of violent criminals is way below 10 percent.
The judge has, several times, mentioned how diligent and thorough the jury members were in reaching this decision. He is making every attempt to honor their decision, and I admire that. This has been a horrible embarrassment for Atlanta.
xiggi, I do not understand how your point relates at all to what I said.
It is my opinion that the vast majority of non-violent crime should not go to prison. The fact that less than half of all of those in prisons are violent offenders is appalling.
Romani, your point related to this case not being served by real jail time. This case would be a mockery if NO jail is imposed after a jury convicted the teachers of an offense of THAT nature. They had the chance to take a plea but rolled the dice despite charges that extremely grave.
As usual, when it comes to fraud cases in the education system perps never think they will get caught, and when caught that their mafia like bosses will bail them out through corrupting forces. Did not work this time. They were convicted after a fair trial and now need to be sentenced. Just like gangsters and mobsters should be. Their convictions are for multiples of racketeering, theft, and false statements.
Those people are scumbags of the worst kind for abusing the confidence of parents and ruining the education of innocent children cynically and callously.
The proposed deal offered by the DA is the result of political pressure, and a farce.
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I guess I need to read up on this case again, since perhaps my memory is faulty, but please explain to me how they “ruined” the education of any children? The only case that I can see could be made for this is that some children may not have received remedial education they may have needed and that may have done them some good.
I think that high stakes testing is what is ruining the education of millions by robbing them of instructional time and warping the instruction that they do receive.
And the idea of wasting tax dollars putting these people in prison is beyond foolish. In what way, exactly, are they a threat to society? Racketeering? Give me a break. Give them probation combined with community service.
Enough with the gangsters and mobsters. Obviously their actions were wrong. Part of the solution going forward IMO would be to devise a better system of performance measures where teachers in schools with high student turnover and poverty are not unduly penalized for yearly test scores that don’t meet federally mandated improvement markers. In many schools teachers and/or schools are rated based on the scores of kids who weren’t in the school last year and might not even be there in a few months. I’m thinking that the Seattle movement to boycott the tests isn’t such a bad idea. Of course when it’s spearheaded by parents with water and mountain views it goes down more smoothly.
They were happy to take money, promotions and praise by willfully falsifying thousands of records over long periods of time. While showing no regard for the kids. I vote 3-5 years for most of them.
@saintfan @Consolation I agree with both you. All of this unnecessary testing is what drives people to take such drastic measures. It is not fair that your job, your funding etc is predicated on test scores. Now I do believe that teachers should be measured to a certain extent on test scores. But how is it fair to measure a teacher in an impoverished district. Lets see, the population is very transient, the parents typically couldnt care less about showing up and being engaged, the kids have no stable home life,.etc. This testing craze has to STOP!
Prove it. Many of these people were in the classroom every day, teaching those kids to the best of their ability. The others were professional educators. People do not go into education because they have no regard for kids.
For that matter, I think that even some of the misguided people pushing high stakes testing have genuine regard for kids. Except, perhaps, for those who stand to reap huge profits by selling the materials. For them it’s just a business opportunity, like for-profit charter schools. Talk about people sucking on the public teat…
What those teachers did was both brazen and shocking, but count me among those who fail to see how their offenses merit multiple-year prison sentences. The thinking that drove them to manipulate test scores in order to meet state and federal benchmarks was no doubt absolutely wrongheaded, and a disservice to the pupils in their charge. But I think about how desperate they must have been to take such measures, the pressures they must have been under. These schools, despite many years of concerted effort to realize improved test scores, failed those benchmarks time and time again. But there are multitude reasons why the problem has shown itself to be so intractable, probably not even half of which can be adequately addressed by teachers in the system. Nevertheless, all the onus for such failures has been place on them.
And I’m sorry, but they surely must be the most inept of racketeers and mobsters given that, for the most part, they haven’t even monetarily benefit from their deception, unlike the true racketeers in the banking and mortgage industry, who have yet to face even the first charge for their misdeeds. The difference, it seems to me, is that one group is relatively small, relatively powerless, and without the financial clout to intimidate and influence those who might punish them. The other group sits at the top of the financial and political echelons of the American power structure, not a few among which are capable of buying and selling those who would be in the position to hold them accountable many times over.
All of this is not to say the Atlanta teachers and administrators shouldn’t be held accountable for what they did. At the very least, they should be fined, have their teaching certifications revoked or suspended, and be made to perform lengthy community service (one on one tutoring for at risk students, for instance). And that’s still a heck of a lot more than the mere “show” contrition (wink-wink, nod-nod) banking execs performed before Congress before returning to business as usual.
Indeed.