Report: Theft, Fraud Plague DPS

**English** · March-23-10, 10:17 PM

http://www.clickondetroit.com/educat...57/detail.html

My friends are all abuzz tonight on Facebook about theft of Advanced Placement test funds at Cass Tech. I am stunned, dismayed, and not a little sickened by this. The CT kids are bright, and although some are the privileged kids of individuals you might recognize, MANY are working class or poor...

What a slap in the face.

**pffft** · March-23-10, 10:24 PM

Wait, are you saying DPS has been charging for AP tests for years, and it shouldn't have been?

It sounds a bit off. I took several AP tests in high school in the suburbs, and I don't recall my parents having to pay.

**English** · March-23-10, 10:28 PM

Good question, pffft. From the news report:

Bell specifically elaborated on the mishandling of AP exam charges at Cass Technical High School. Bell said students who qualified for free and reduced lunch were improperly charged $54 to take AP exams between 2006 and 2009, and that the state money that was supposed to pay for the underprivileged students to take the exam was used for other things.

The OIG has since reimbursed $8,200 of the $12,754 that was improperly collected and is actively tracking down the other families to reimburse them. Bell said the principal and assistant principal of the high school have been reprimanded.

So it's only the kids who qualified for free or reduced lunch who get free AP tests. Maybe it was an honest mistake, I don't know. I can't see the folks down there whom I worked for doing this. But yep, pffft, in the city, kids paid when I was in high school 15-20 years ago, and when I taught at CT during the early 2000s. I thought kids all over the country were paying until I went to FL for undergrad. No one in the entire state pays for their AP exams, and my professors said the Detroit situation sounded fishy back then. I just figured Florida was a richer state, but now?

**Hermod** · March-24-10, 05:05 AM

Remember that DPS is run for the benefit of the employees. The city, the parents, the students, and society has a whole have no standing with DPS.

**DetroitTeacher** · March-24-10, 06:20 AM

I take offense to this statement. Granted, there are SOME employees in DPS who take advantage of things but the majority do not. Most of my "spare" money goes to my classroom. At Cooley, we had a fundraiser for the kids to take the AP exam [[for the costs not covered by the grant). In most districts, the district pays for the exam. In Detroit, there is no money for such things [[there SHOULD be, though). Please don't lump the honest, hardworking people who have a love for the KIDS into the same pot with the folks who are greedy and just don't give a damn.

Originally Posted by Hermod

Remember that DPS is run for the benefit of the employees. The city, the parents, the students, and society has a whole have no standing with DPS.

**KOMPOST** · March-24-10, 06:43 AM

Originally Posted by DetroitTeacher

I take offense to this statement. Granted, there are SOME employees in DPS who take advantage of things but the majority do not. Most of my "spare" money goes to my classroom. At Cooley, we had a fundraiser for the kids to take the AP exam [[for the costs not covered by the grant). In most districts, the district pays for the exam. In Detroit, there is no money for such things [[there SHOULD be, though). Please don't lump the honest, hardworking people who have a love for the KIDS into the same pot with the folks who are greedy and just don't give a damn.

Second this. On a very large scale.

**firstandten** · March-24-10, 07:22 AM

This might have been an honest mistake, the Principal and AP who are being looked at did not pocket the money but turned it in, and they are still on the job.

I believe there is a big problem with DPS with sloppy accounting controls, terrible internal auditing procedures etc. I don't believe its all theft and fraud.