August Trial Date for (first of many) APS Cheating Scandal Legal Proceedings

A judge has set a trial date for this August 2013 for the state to present its case against a defendant-former executive.  These charges are separate from the conspiracy case that envelopes most of the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal legal proceedings that are certain to come later.  As reported, this trial is for actions of intimidating witnesses.

Watch for yourself (courtesy of local news affiliate WSB):

Affirmative Action still not "decided"

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court released its Opinion of the Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin et al. case, also known as our time's Affirmative Action case.

For the non-lawyers, my reading is that the Supreme Court held that a university gets deference in deciding and determining its diversity mission...but University does not get deference in deciding how to go about achieving diversity. Judicial review (strict scrutiny) is required. The case now goes back to lower courts to review whether the university went about achieving their mission in a "narrowly-tailored" (as race-neutral as possible) way.

So, the Court did not do much "deciding" today on the merits on the case (which means they did not get into whether "diversity" is actually a compelling interest, except Justice Thomas who long ago decided his stance that no use of race is acceptable to him) but rather did some clarifying on what the judicial standard is for college admissions cases. The initial Plaintiff, Fisher, did not ask the Court to decide whether past cases on college admissions (Grutter, especially) needed overturning -- a point which Scalia writes separately to justify as his reason for joining the Court's decision on this case. 

I did find some of the Court's point particularly interesting.  First, the Court actually said that universities are not required to exhaust all the race-neutral means of admissions processes that they can think of.  Instead, the Court said that universities are required to have serious, good faith consideration of race-neutral means of admissions and then justify why those alternative admissions process would not work.  570 U.S. ___ at 10 (2013).  Further, the Court reemphasized that the university's decision must be a workable decision, and tipped its hat that an administratively viable solution might be a consideration in the narrowly-tailored analysis that will follow once the lower courts sort out the judicial review.  570 U.S. ___ at 11 (2013).  Finally, the Court also restated that the judicial standard of strict scrutiny not be "fatal in fact"--which means that it cannot be the case that each time a court reviews a program by which the state has taken action or made some type of determination, a court later strikes it down and says that it was not good enough to muster the constitutional protections of the 14th Amendment.  In fairness, the Court also stated that the strict scrutiny analysis cannot also be "feeble" such that state action gets deference or an easy pass in its process.  570 U.S. ___ at 13 (2013).  

For me, I'm kinda happy that the deciding did not come today (dunno if my heart could take it), but in line with many of my colleagues' sentiments, I don't know whether the odds are going to be better years from now... And, I certainly would have loved to hear Justice Ginsburg on the merits of this case another, wonderful time.


As always, I'm providing the actual Opinion:  http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-345_l5gm.pdf
 

INDICTMENTS! [No April Fool]

The floodgates have opened and, to my surprise (since I had been reporting that no one else seemed interested any longer and that no charges had been brought as of last week) there have been several administrators, school leaders, and teachers INDICTED for their roles in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal.

From the headlines are the specific charges.  Here is more about what happens after the indictment.

CNN.com:

In what has been described as one of the largest cheating scandals to hit the nation's public education system, 35 Atlanta Public Schools educators and administrators were indicted Friday on charges of racketeering and corruption.

The indictment is the bookend to a story that was once touted as a model for the nation's school districts after the district's test scores dramatically improved in some of its toughest urban schools.

Among those indicted by a Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury was Beverly Hall, the former schools superintendent who gained national recognition in 2009 for turning around Atlanta's school system.

Local Channel 2 news (WSB):

More after the break...

Former Georgia Superintendent of Schools Got Out of Prison Last Week

Ms. Linda Schrenko was released from federal prison on March 6, 2013 after serving time for embezzling federal education funds.  She was convicted in 2006, according to public sources.  Supposedly, she spent "half the diverted funds . . . [on her] 2002 campaign for governor, plus $9,300 more for a facelift."

She'll spend the balance of her 5-or-so months in home confinement, pay $414,888 in restitution, and spend three years in a federal probation program.

Crazy right?

DeKalb County Schools (Atlanta) -- Over 400 Applicants down to about One Dozen

When the State School Board decided that six members of the DeKalb County School Board (Atlanta, Ga) would lose their seats due to mismanagement, over 400 applications were received to fill those positions.  I wrote about it here and here.

News just in today?  A special committee tasked to recommend candidates to fill those seats should widdle that list down by the end of the day to about one dozen, or 2 for each seat, to be presented to the Governor.  Here's the article from the local WSBtv affiliate.

DeKalb County School Board Members OUT -- Governor Removes 'Em

Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia removed members of the DeKalb County School Board last week.  The news went national: Huffington Post.  I wrote about my thoughts in several previous posts: Another Atlanta district is on suspension -- UGH!

My thoughts haven't much changed-- it's an embarrassment.

According to Georgia news, Georgia governors have done this often.

The state's last three governors—Roy Barnes, Sonny Perdue and now Deal—have suspended or removed from office members of local boards of education in Spalding, Clayton, Warren and Miller counties when those districts' accreditation was threatened, in part, by dysfunctional behavior on the part of their boards. -- The Daily Report.

 Further, supposedly more than 400 people have applied to fill the school board vacancies. 

Case of First Impression: Georgia Supreme Court rules that 12-year cannot appeal his placement decision -- UPDATED

The case is In the Interest of W.L.H., No. S12G1049 (Mar. 4, 2013) in the Ga. Supreme Court.  The article on which I am relying can be found on The Daily Report, "Ga. high court: Children can't contest rulings on their care."

On the facts, a young man had been cared for by his cousin from the time that he was 17-months old until he was 12-years-old.  His father is deceased and his mother not in the picture.  He stayed with his cousin by authority of a placement from the state of Georgia.  However, after accusations of abuse on the young man surfaced and there was evidence that he had been struck by the cousin, a Georgia court appointed a legal guardian for the minor.  Later, the court made a legal determination that the minor was experiencing deprivation in his home.  The court ordered that the young man be removed from the cousin's care-- first to foster care and then to a group home.

The young man, armed with an attorney, appealed the court's decision, and then appealed the decision of the Georgia Court of Appeals.  When the case reached the Supreme Court, the question was whether the judges would grant the young man "standing" to actually be heard on his case.  Standing is a legal burden that must be overcome before one can bring a case or controversy to court.  Basically, if one is not appropriately situated in his relationship to the facts and harms of the case, a court will not allow that person to bring the matter to the court's attention.  (Of course, standing is much more complicated, but that's the idea).
 

Out-of-School Time Opportunity: IKEA is having a Bring a Friend Day

If it takes a village to raise a child (including corporate "villagers"), and out-of-school-time is supposed to be productive, then here's a family outing that might be worth your time.

On March 9^th IKEA is hosting a day of "Bring friends to a local IKEA store."  there is supposed to be some special perks & rewards.

Here's the link to the coupons:  http://www.thelifeimprovementproject.com/byof-coupon.pdf

Here's information about the event:  http://www.thelifeimprovementproject.com/byofevents/bring-friends-to-a-local-ikea-store-for-a-day-of-special-perks-and-rewards-1407

When you got prosecutors spewing prejudices...

A Texas prosecutor stood before a jury and asked them to make logical connections based on prejudices of what African-Americans and Hispanic people would do with a bag of money.

Have no idea where I was when this story first broke, but I'm reading about it now and it sickens me on sooo many levels.  Usually, I just list the link and ask readers to explore, but because of the gross miscarriage of power that has been entrusted in a prosecutor (presumably a representative of the people to seek justice), here's the text of the story.

I would make my own comments, but Justice Sotomayor has made the points that I feel in a way that is much more thoughtful that I would probably put together.  I've highlighted her comments in purple.

More after the break...

Code much?

What if schools taught students to code?.

Click the link, watch the video.