Alabama's Two-Year College Scandals Keep Piling Up
Speaking of T.D., he's seeing red and you will be too if you live in Alabama (and it won't be Crimson Tide Red). Brett J. Blackledge, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the scandals in our two-year college system, has more damaging evidence of financial shenanigans. From The Birmingham News:
Alabama two-year college presidents send more than $150,000 a year in state money to a group that lobbies for their causes, including efforts to kill Gov. Bob Riley's ban on colleges hiring legislators.
The presidents' group has opposed Riley's legislation to ban hiring lawmakers, although the state school board hasn't taken a position because it remains sharply divided on the issue.
[...]
The presidents' group, called the Alabama College System President's Association, collects money from two-year colleges. The group has declined to disclose how much money it collects and how it uses the money.
But system financial records show that the group receives at least $7,125 a year each from most colleges, although it's not clear from available records if each community college and technical school pays the group. Some colleges pay the group more than $7,125 a year, records show.
More than $150,000 in payments to the group were identified in college financial records obtained by The Birmingham News covering a period between October 2004 and September 2005. But not all schools are represented in those records. The group could receive more than $185,000 a year from the colleges if all sent payments.
Sounds like a nice little racket for the presidents' club.
T.D. breaks it down nicely in his post and concludes:
What we have currently in the two-year college system in Alabama is an 800-pound gorilla. It’s become so big and so powerful and has influenced, corrupted, or bypassed those whose job it is to oversee that system, that real oversight is lacking – at least in the case of funds disbursement for political candidates and/or issues.
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