Funny Money
I wanted to give a special nod to the Chicago Tribune’s recent investigative piece on taxpayer money targeted for after-school programs being squandered on things not related to school or after-school.
The juicy details:
Powerful Senate Democrats quietly gave out the money to handpicked nonprofits, schools, businesses and churches. The lawmakers funneled the money through the Illinois State Board of Education, which rubber-stamped the choices.
But a Tribune investigation found that nearly half of the 48 groups that got money this past school year were running dubious programs, or declined to show how they spent the money. Only 11 of the grants went to established programs with a history of tutoring or mentoring school-age children.
Singled out in the article is Illinois State Sen. Rickey Hendon, who is the main sponsor for these grants in question. Hendon responds further in the article by saying, “yeah, I take chances on people. I’ve had success and failures.” If half of the 48 programs are squandering their $20,000 grants or are not able to show how this money is being spent, we come to a situation beyond a simple success or failure.
In a year where close to three dozen young people in Chicago (not counting the suburbs) have been killed, it is an outright shame to find such little disregard from a public official we elected to serve in our best interests, not his or his friends and associates. What will Sen. Hendon have to say if a child in his district is shot because they had nowhere else to be other than the streets since the money for their promised after-school program is in someone else’s pockets instead? Another simple failure? Try telling that to the child’s parents, or the parents who have already had to live the nightmare of losing a son or daughter.
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
