- an information nexus for resources on publicly funded education programs, policies, and schools in the United States, with the personal stories of whistleblowers working at the local level to challenge those in power who are not helping the children they are paid by our taxpayer money to serve.
We celebrate the alliance of the Internet with the awareness that for too many years people elected to publicly-funded positions have promoted policies that do not serve the public interest. We challenge those who believe they can continue to violate the public trust to stop and listen to the buzz of millions of people visiting websites, emailing each other, blogging and chatting online about what is going on behind closed doors. We promise to hold you responsible for your actions.
We call this process "e-accountability".
Government Lies, Corruption and Mismanagement | Posted 1/4/2009 at 11:48 PM
This is crazy. A case that could have been settled for approximately $1,780 may be moved to federal court where taxpayers will be charged $100,000+ in lawyers' fees.
Government Lies, Corruption and Mismanagement | Posted 1/3/2009 at 9:52 PM
The state Department of Education has settled a long-running lawsuit with the whistle-blower, paying $4.25 million to the former worker who said he suffered retaliation after he reported corruption and fraud to then-Superintendent Delaine Eastin.
Stories & Grievances | Posted 1/2/2009 at 11:49 PM
New York City will pay $225,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a former secretary who accused the recently resigned commissioner of the city’s Department for the Aging of sexual harassment and discrimination. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to justify Mr. Mendez-Santiago's sudden departure as due to "personal reasons", but no one believes Bloomberg anymore. There is no oversight of any agency in NYC, and Commissioners are dropping like flies.
Stories & Grievances | Posted 12/29/2008 at 10:35 PM
On December 25, 2008, Google removed my two blogs from the internet without any notice to me. So, not to be undone by this stunning deed, I started a new blog and transferred all the articles to the new site, one by one. Go to http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com to see the result. You did not win this one, Google. With best wishes for the holidays, Betsy Combier
Government Lies, Corruption and Mismanagement | Posted 12/26/2008 at 10:25 PM
Four years and four New York City Board of Education re-assignment centers ("rubber rooms") later, David Pakter completes his journey to hold the New York City Board of Education accountable for taking him away from his very successful career in the New York City public school system as an excellent teacher, and dumping him into the dungeons of the NYC rubber rooms. For what? For trying to expose racial discrimination at one school, and buying plants for the lobby at another. I've been there to see it all, and it's quite a story of retaliation and vindictiveness by the NYC BOE against a teacher who did the right thing and would not be silenced. by Betsy Combier
Stories & Grievances | Posted 12/25/2008 at 3:21 AM
In October 2004, the New York City Board of Education - or Department of Education, as Mayor Bloomberg would have you believe - published a manual for principals in which FAQs on how to remove a teacher permanently from his/her school was described in detail. I was given a copy by a member of the "Rubber Room" of Brooklyn NY.
Government Lies, Corruption and Mismanagement | Posted 12/21/2008 at 2:23 PM
The Right To Know Community has published proposals for the Obama Administration and Congress to reach a new level of transparency in our government: "With a new presidential administration and a new Congress taking office in 2009, we believe there is a great opportunity, and great need, to increase government transparency. We hope these recommendations contribute to that important work." The Bush Administration still does not want to give up the emails sent during the last eight years, but he may have to. In November 2007, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. ordered White House officials to preserve tapes and "not transfer said media out of their custody or control without leave of this court."
Government Lies, Corruption and Mismanagement | Posted 12/21/2008 at 3:37 AM
North Country Gazette writes that the Attorney General’s Office failed to comply with Public Officers Law and FOIL in responding to a request filed Nov. 19 by the newspaper, seeking the salaries of Sharon L. McCarthy, the special prosecutor appointed by Cuomo to head the probe of the State Police and those of the two special advisors named by Cuomo, Michael Armstrong and Robert Fiske to “advise” whoever.
Government Lies, Corruption and Mismanagement | Posted 12/20/2008 at 9:29 PM
Federal Government sources have revealed that New York Governor David Paterson was formally advised last week that interviews in the Bernard Madoff $50 billion fraud implicate the Empire State's senior U.S. Senator, Charles E. Schumer. "The problem is what Schumer knew, and how long he knew it," says the source. "The federal government had an obligation to brief New York's Governor... few believe Senator Schumer will be able to finesse his way out of this."
Stories & Grievances | Posted 12/20/2008 at 12:55 AM
Bernard L. Madoff is just one of many who has tried to use the "rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul" principal basic to Ponzi schemes, where money from new investors is used to pay off earlier investors until the whole scheme collapses.