Teachers Laid Off While CEO Plans to Blast Off ?

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The Cleveland school board recently cut $100 million from the district's budget and in so doing eliminated 1,400 jobs, including 1,000 teaching positions or about sixteen percent of their full-time workforce. The news came only weeks after state auditors advised the Cleveland Municipal School District to better monitor the expenses of schools' CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett. Apparently, Byrd-Bennett was taking a few trips, including jaunts to Hawaii and Great Britain and enjoying some costly dinners all on the district’s dime. An Onion-like online "newspaper" called the Watley Review ("dedicated to the production of articles completely without journalistic merit or factual basis, as this would entail leaving our chairs or actually working") couldn’t resist running a spoof with the following headline: "Cleveland School Superintendent Pays $20 Million for Space Trip." We knew we'd been in this business too long because we almost bought it! For a good chuckle; check it out. Here's a taste: "For an additional million," [Cleveland Mayor] Campbell noted, "the Russians are willing to leave her up there. Now that would be a benefit that would extend to the entire Cleveland District."