Corrupt, Mismanaged, and Unsafe Schools: Where Is the Research?

By Richard Fossey

As long as the empire can keep the pretense alive that things are all right, there will be no grieving and no serious criticism.

-Walter Brueggemann

The Prophetic Imagination

Last May, auditors for the city of Washington reported that school officials there had hired thousands of people who had been arrested or convicted of crimes. Among the auditors' discoveries was the fact that about a quarter of the District of Columbia schools' 211 security workers had arrest or conviction records. Over a 15-month period ending in December 1994, the school district had hired 114 people with criminal backgrounds, representing about 6 percent of all its new employees. More than 50 of these persons had been hired as...