This is just infuriating. Taking money that was meant for homeless kids to have this experience? If I were a NYC taxpayer, I’d be raising hell. Via the Washington Post:
Money that was supposed to fund educational trips for children without homes actually paid for the vacations of New York City schools staffers and their families, including a visit to Disney World, according to a recently released investigative report.
Investigators recommended firing employees after finding that the head of the Queens Students in Temporary Housing (STH) program, which is meant to reward hardworking unhoused students with educational trips, was telling her staff that they could bring their families instead. (Temporary housing status is for students living in shelters, cars, parks or abandoned buildings, according to the New York City Public Schools website.)
Staff members’ families weren’t joining the trips under a misunderstanding of the rules, independent investigators wrote. In one instance, STH Queens regional manager Linda Wilson allegedly told her staff: “What happens here stays with us.” She denies saying it.
I don’t even know what to say. Who does that?
Jenna Lyle, a spokeswoman for the city’s Education Department, said in a statement Tuesday that the behavior described in the report was “unacceptable” and that all staff members identified in the document “are no longer employed by New York City Public Schools.”
“Our students in temporary housing deserve to have the supports they need, and when we were given the report from SCI, we acted immediately,” she said.
There are nearly 30,000 students without permanent homes in Queens, according to the latest data from the New York State Technical and Educational Assistance Center for Homeless Students.
And there’s the real scandal. Thirty thousand students without permanent housing? Housing costs in NYC are insane. Used to be, you could afford to live there if you didn’t care about living close to downtown. Not anymore — the rent is just too damn high everywhere. People pay $1200 a month to rent one room in a basement, as we learned during the city’s floods. Basements filled with water and people died, because there were no exits.
