Cook or Crook? Or a Bunch of Crooks?

From reading the P&C's Sunday edition, we can be sure of one fact: former CCSD Board of Trustees Chairwoman Nancy Cook doesn't give a damn about veterans. Yoga. Candles. Right.

Venial people exist around us, but they can't take their venality to such lengths without the complicity of others. Let's start with former CCSD Board member Gregg Meyers, who is attempting to defend Cook's actions as nothing out of the ordinary. Undoubtedly Meyers knew some of the details of Cook's behavior while she was still on the CCSD Board; I guess her vote was safe for his projects.

The VA's problem is that Cook wasn't a big enough player in terms of dollars for them to spend their limited resources researching her behavior more fully. Therefore, it had to depend on the directors of the men's shelter to keep finances in line. Joke. That was a joke. They appear to have treated their positions as honorary rather that real.

Cook should be prosecuted for misappropriation of funds and insurance fraud.

The Board of Directors should be prosecuted for not doing their jobs.

Literacy Progress or Not in CCSD?

This fall 332 rising ninth-graders will be reading on a fourth-grade level or below in the Charleston County School District. Wouldn't you love to know how they managed to pass the eighth grade?

This number represents a reduction from last year's challenge: in the fall of 2010, 342 rising ninth-graders read at the fourth-grade level or below.

Ten fewer. That's 10 fewer after all of the hullabaloo about improving literacy skills in CCSD. Miracles do not happen overnight, obviously, but maybe just getting private tutors for the bottom 20 readers would have cost less.

Just a thought.

Cheating in Atlanta? Who Copied Whom?

Teachers and administrators in Atlanta are facing criminal charges for changing student answers on standardized tests over the last decade in order to show improvement and gain the rewards. Why does the story sound so familiar?

Can anyone say "Sanders-Clyde"? How about MiShawna Moore, darling of Superintendent Nancy McGinley, who escaped to North Carolina? McGinley put her in charge of two schools because of the rocketing scores at Sanders-Clyde, and then came. . . the fall.

According to the media, NCLB "made" them do it. Please.