By Nicholas Stix
Parent cliques are a pervasive problem in New York City schools, even the best ones. Regarding the worst schools, one hears rumors of embezzlement. Regarding the best schools, one hears rumors—and sees evidence—of favoritism towards the cliques members' kids, and cronyism, regarding the parceling out of some jobs. And if you want to fight what you see as bad policy and practices at your child's school, don't even think of going to a PTA meeting alone. Things can get ugly in a hurry. You have to go with your own clique!
The thing is, the cliques don't deal with anything upfront. With them, everything is done behind closed doors, in smoke-free rooms, or on cellphones.
The following story by Carl Campanile suggests that straight-up bribery is being committed. One of the recipients of union largesse, black racist and convicted embezzler Hazel Dukes, has been the head of the New York State NAACP for centuries.
She once embezzled $13,000 from an elderly black woman who was being treated for leukemia (and whom Dukes surely assumed would die), Velma McLaughlin, who had worked for her at OTB, who thought Dukes was her friend, and who had entrusted her affairs to her, via a power of attorney. While Dukes confessed to the embezzlement, she was given a sweetheart deal, whereby she had but to plead guilty to "attempted grand larceny," and got probation instead of prison time, and agreed to repay the $13,000 she'd stolen. Judge William Mogulescu demanded not so much as that Dukes serve probation.
There is no public record as to whether Dukes made restitution to her victim.
Hazel Dukes: Never too old
for black racism, rhetorical
bombast, or extortion and
bribe-taking
Corrupt, racist black mayor David Dinkins (1990 through 1993) had given Dukes control of New York City's Off Track Betting (OTB) Corporation, a billion-dollar-a-year city property that was supposed to generate hundreds of millions of dollars per year for the city's public schools. Under Dukes, OTB generated $0 for the public schools. Indeed during fiscal year 1992-1993, Dukes ran OTB at a loss, the first time any public bookmaker had ever lost money.
That's right; hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars "disappeared" under her reign. She was not so much as investigated for embezzlement or criminal fraud, let alone prosecuted.
Twenty-eight white, former OTB executives sued the city, charging that Dukes had deliberately fired them based on the color of their skin. The lawsuits cost the city's predominantly white tax base millions of dollars in settlements.
After firing the white OTB executives, Dukes hired as her top assistant a black man who claimed on his resume to have a bachelor's and a master's degree. During the white execs' lawsuit, their attorney deposed the black fraud, who admitted that he had never graduated from college at any level, but still felt that he deserved the non-existent college degrees. That Dukes never had black job applicants' resumes vetted was a case of what Mickey Kaus has called "due diligence, diversity-style."
Dukes was neither prosecuted, nor so much as cited, for civil rights violations.
It's a black thing, you wouldn't understand.
I'm unfamiliar with the other mopes the article cites, Mona Davids, Michael Mulgrew, and Arthur Z. Schwartz.
Previously, at WEJB/NSU:
"Child Molester Hysteria in New York."
New parent group all $nug with UFT
By Carl Campanile
Last Updated: 7:53 a.m., November 10, 2011
Posted: 1:50 a.m., November 10, 2011
New York Post
It's the new teacher's pet.
A nonprofit touting itself as an "independent" parent advocacy group has quickly cozied up to the United Federation of Teachers -- and to the union's deep pockets, The Post has learned. [N.S.: The UFT is the New York City teachers' union. It is the local chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. The much larger National Education Association is the nation's largest teachers' union.]
The New York City Parents Union, which supported the UFT's legal battle against charter schools being housed in public buildings and which recently ripped the mayor's handling of the schools system, has already received $10,000 from the teachers union since launching in April.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew
The relationship between the two groups will take center stage tonight when the Parents Union hosts its first annual awards benefit -- honoring none other than UFT President Michael Mulgrew at the UFT's downtown headquarters.
Arthur Z. Schwartz
Also honored for community leadership will be the state's NAACP chief, Hazel Dukes -- who has railed repeatedly against charter schools -- and Arthur Z. Schwartz, a longtime labor lawyer who represented the transit union during its unlawful 2005 strike, which crippled the city. [I don't know this mope, Schwartz, but being a "labor lawyer" is morally on a par, these days, or slightly below, being a mob lawyer.]
His new group, Advocates for Justice, filed a lawsuit last summer on behalf of the Parents Union that echoed the UFT's losing legal bid to keep struggling schools from being shuttered.
[N.S.: Why does it seem that like crooks put the word "justice" in the names of their groups?]
A host of other unions were also donors to the event including the AFL-CIO, Teamsters Local 237, SEIU 32B and the Transit Workers Union.
School-choice advocates accused the new parents group of being an arm of the UFT.
"It was always clear that the UFT was behind this organization, but now they aren't even trying to pretend there is any separation," said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform.
NYC Parents Union founder
Mona Davids
Parents Union founder Mona Davids insisted her group is not a union tool, saying it "welcomes and appreciates alliances with other individuals and organizations who share our interest in obtaining the highest-quality public education for all children in New York City.''
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen
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