Feds: Couple Stole Millions From Schools

[NVMojo]

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A retired school district program director and her husband are accused of stealing millions in federal grant money through a scheme that involved distributing illegally photocopied books to students, the U.S. attorney said Wednesday.

The couple collected $3.9 million with the help of a subcontractor with the Davis School District from January 2000 to May 2005, according to a 47-count indictment.

Susan Ross, 62, who was the district's director of federal programs until her retirement in June 2005, denied any wrongdoing and said her work with Research and Development Consultants was legitimate.

She said that her private business assembled tutoring kits, boxes with books and other tools to improve reading in elementary schools, and that the district was aware of her role.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2006/nov/22/112206653.html

[tanyev]

1. Why, that's just good old fashioned GOP entrepreneurship.

ROSS, JOHN DANIEL
FARMINGTON,UT 84025
DAVIS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT
10/6/2004
$250
Bennett, Robert F

ROSS, JOHN DANIEL
FARMINGTON,UT 84025
DAVIS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT
2/17/2004
$250
Hatch, Orrin G

www.opensecrets.org

[nealmhughes]

2. $93 for one book that retailed for $13.....husband was head of grants at the same time for the

district...wow! What a scam! Does anyone on the school board read the motions?

Conflict of interest? No way! :sarcasm: they were just doin' what comes naturally....

Only the highest quality art books cost $93 -- or scientific texts. No children's textbook costs that much. Let's xerox some crap ignoring copyright law and sell it to the kids for $50 for a booklet of crap! Then we can use Old Man McGinty's barn and put on a show!

[yurbud]

3. sadly, scamming and self-dealing is as rampant at the local level as national

I teach at community college, and this kind of crap goes on all the time with administrators and elected trustees. I'd like the union to draw the legislatures attention to it more, but they are afraid the response will be "a pox on both your houses" and withholding funding from education in general.

And of course since people are in the legislature for the same reason, they probably don't care.