Yesterday, I posted here an open letter to US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about a burgeoning scandal involving the Save-A-Life Foundation, its founder, Carol Spizzirri, and Chicago Public Schools under the leadership of Mr. Duncan.
Here are follow up links to a blog post the late Gerald Bracey was working on when he died in 2009, examining this same troubling situation.
Click here for supporting documents regarding the following.
Michael Paul Goldenberg 6655 Jackson Rd Lot #136 Ann Arbor, MI 48103 (734)644-0975 mikegold@umich.edu http://rationalmathed.blogspot.com
June 1, 2011
The Honorable Arne Duncan US Secretary of Education Department of Education Building 400 Maryland Ave, SW Washington, DC 20202
Dear Mr. Duncan:
I'm a mathematics educator working in an urban public school district. On my blog, I'm reporting about the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), an Illinois nonprofit with which you were associated when you served as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). I'd greatly appreciate your answers to two brief, but serious questions.
You'll recall that SALF's charter was to provide in-class first aid training to students. According to an October 11, 2009 Chicago Tribune article, SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri claimed “2 million children took the classes, many of them from the Chicago Public Schools.”
According to news reports, press releases, and other records, from 2003 through late 2006 you lent your support to Spizzirri's organization in various ways, including appearing as an animated cartoon character on SALF's website.
Subsequently, a November 2006 ABC7 I-Team story reported that SALF and Spizzirri engaged in a variety of serious misrepresentations. In that broadcast, you yourself raise doubts about SALF's claims. Since then, the organization has been the subject of dozens more media exposes including an October 11, 2010 article in The Hill reporting that SALF was under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General's Charitable Trust Bureau. An investigation by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also appears to be underway.
Here's why I'm writing. In response to a federal court subpoena and FOIA requests, the only records produced by CPS indicate that at best a few dozen students ever participated in SALF training classes. As result, Chicago Schools Inspector General James M. Sullivan has been asked to investigate what happened to approximately $62,000 CPS awarded to SALF, most of which was arranged by you. Records show that you contracted with Spizzirri to provide first-aid training for approximately 18,000 students from 2004-2006. You signed off on $49,000 in CPS funds and Ronald McDonald House Charities provided an additional $125,000, making a total of $174,000 paid to SALF for what appears to be a program that never happened.
Given the facts, do you think Inspector General Sullivan should proceed with an investigation? And would you co-operate with such an investigation?
Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to receiving your answers.
