Gee whiz: Missing lunch money, million-dollar parties, and no charges on state superintendent

The world of academia has had better weeks. Where, oh where, to begin?

Let's start close to home.

• A state audit by Dave Yost's office revealed missing lunch money at Hillsboro Elementary School and led to $6,500 in findings for recovery. A former school cook pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing in Highland County Common Pleas Court.

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Now, let's move a little to our north.

• An investigation by The Dayton Daily News discovered that Thee Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee has spent Thee Incredible Amount of $7.7 million on travel and entertainment on top of Thee President's record-setting salary for a college prez in These United States.

Thee OSU president has received some $8.6 million in good ol' salary and bennies in the past five (count 'em, five) years.

Thee Ohio State University community does not seem to find this near as funny as Gee's bow tie collection.

The newspaper reports that Gee "travels the globe often on private jets staying in luxury hotels sometimes reached by limousine, dines at country clubs and fancy restaurants, and throws dozens of expensive parties a year for thousands of guests."

The investigation also found that more than $895,000 was spent for gatherings at Gee's mansion between April 2008 and June 2011.

Those parties must have been some real wing-dingers. Forget about the Busch Light and J.T.S Brown. These hoity-toities must've been ordering the Sam Adams and Maker's Mark. Instead of that ol' Boone's Farm Country Quencher – which is good enough for most Buckeyes, I'll bet they could get a quart or two of that there Dom Pérignon champagne on an $895,000 party budget.

No baloney sandwiches in the Bexley palatial estate, either. For these pinky drinkers, it's most likely petits fours and fish eggs. (But surely not in that sequence. Even this Ridgerunner would save THEE Cookie for last.)

For comparison, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman has managed to scrape by, spending roughly 30 percent of what Thee OSU prez spends for such extravagances.

Gee owes THEE state of Ohio an explanation. He declined to comment for The Dayton Daily News story. However, in an economically depressed Midwest state that has lost two congressional seats due to a declining population – which typically accompanies job losses – it's more than a bit disheartening to see these excesses.

After all, Ohio is among the nation's leaders when it comes to educating students just to tell them to move to another state if they want a job. Excessive spending on public officials like Gordon Gee may be part of the problem.

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Now, let's move a few miles to our west.

In a Cincinnati Enquirer exclusive this week, we learned that the University of Cincinnati will make "a consulting payment on the 15th of the month for the next two years to Greg Williams, who abruptly resigned as UC president in August, regardless of whether he does any consulting that month."

Former President Williams will receive $25,000 per month for the next year and $16,666 per month the following year under the $500,000 arrangement, the Enquirer said.

This is a half-million-dollar "arrangement" for a former college president who walked out six days before the start of classes for the 2012 academic year.

The deal also lets Williams stay in a UC-owned condominium in East Walnut Hills through January 2013.

Twenty-five grand a month. No heavy lifting. No real responsibilities. It's good work if you can get it.

(And as an aside to these college boards: It's real easy spending other people's money, isn't it? I'll bet there's not one mirror in any of your homes.)

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Back to the capital city.

• We learned this week that criminal charges will not be filed on the former state schools Superintendent Stan Heffner.

Isn't that special.

Heffner, the state superintendent of Public Instruction, resigned effective Aug. 10, amid allegations of misconduct and ethics violations in office.

The Ohio Office of Inspector General Randall Meyer reported:

"At the time of his testimony before the Ohio Senate Finance Committee, Heffner had already interviewed and secured a position at Educational Testing Service (ETS). Heffner negotiated the conditions of his employment with ETS, signed an offer, and began the process of transitioning from Ohio to San Antonio, Texas. He had met with ETS officials out of state and allowed them to pay for his travel; he took time from attending an out-of-state conference on behalf of ODE to meet with ETS officials.

An Associated Press report said Heffner had a flight to Texas – to meet with the vice president of Educational Testing Service – coordinated by his executive secretary at the Ohio Department of Education, Carolyn Jones, while she was on state time. "Jones also coordinated other air travel related to his job hunt and sent paperwork using state equipment for his purchase of a Texas home, records show," the AP reported.

Divisions (D) and (E) of Revised Code Section 102.03 provide:

(D) No public official or employee shall use or authorize the use of the authority or influence of his office or employment to secure anything of value or the promise or offer of anything of value that is of such a character as to manifest a substantial and improper influence upon him with respect to his duties.

(E) No public official or employee shall solicit or accept anything of value that is of such a character as to manifest a substantial and improper influence upon him with respect to his duties. (Where have we heard this before? Anyone? The first caller with the correct answer wins a date with Sasquatch. Caller has to drive.)

A public official or employee is also prohibited from accepting, soliciting, or using the authority or influence of her position to secure anything of value that could otherwise impair the official's or employee's objectivity and independence of judgment with respect to his or her official duties.

“Despite our belief that Mr. Heffner acted inappropriately in both instances ... we do not find that the evidence supports probable cause to file criminal charges,” Assistant County Prosecutor Jeff Blake and Chief City Prosecutor Lara Baker wrote in a letter to state Inspector General Randall J. Meyer. “As a result, we are unable to pursue criminal prosecution.”

Sometimes, as Lefty Gomez said, You'd rather be lucky than good. Mr. Heffner, you were, indeed, lucky.

By the way, school administrators like Gee, Williams and Heffner play the system for hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of dollars and nothing happens. Meanwhile, a school cook pleads guilty to less than $7,000 in missing money. Ah, the irony.

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Just a few more...

• Ben Shapiro reports at www.breitbart.com: "President Obama has bragged about his supposed revolution in education over and over during this election cycle. He says he’s interested in upping standards while simultaneously appeasing teachers unions. But the performance of American students continues to sink to all-time lows. 2012’s high school seniors have the worst SAT reading score since 1972. They scored 486 on reading, out of a possible 800. In writing, students also dropped dramatically, down to 488. That’s a nine-point drop since 2006."

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The hits just keep coming…

• From Dr. Walter E. Williams column this week: "Many of the nation's colleges and universities have become cesspools of indoctrination, intolerance, academic dishonesty and an 'enlightened' form of racism. This is a decades-old trend. In a 1991 speech, Yale President Benno Schmidt warned: 'The most serious problems of freedom of expression in our society today exist on our campuses. The assumption seems to be that the purpose of education is to induce correct opinion rather than to search for wisdom and to liberate the mind.'

"Unfortunately, parents, taxpayers and donors have little knowledge of the extent of the dishonesty and indoctrination."

(Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of "Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?" and "Up from the Projects: An Autobiography.")

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• Townhall.com columnist Jeff Jacoby, in his column, "The Higher-Ed Bubble is Bound to Burst," writes:

"If you want to go to college," my mother said, "you'll have to get a scholarship."
Luckily, I did. I was admitted to George Washington University, which generously awarded me a grant covering the full cost of my tuition. To the best of my recollection, that sum was $2,400 in 1975, the year I entered GW. To pay for my other expenses there were several forms of need-based financial aid, and I received what is now called a Pell Grant and a subsidized work/study job on campus.

"Adjusted for inflation, the $2,400 GW charged for tuition when I was a freshman would equal $10,220 today. But for freshmen entering this year, tuition at GW is $45,780. In other words, four years of GW in the 1970s cost less (in 2012 dollars) than a single year there – or at many other universities – today."

"If there were a museum of good intentions leading to bad results, the government's longstanding policy of trying to make higher education affordable would be a featured exhibit," Jacoby said.

From costly school lunches to parties for college presidents to $45,000 a year tuition, a good education today is altogether different than what it was in 1968 when Violet Morgan taught two grades at once at Concord Elementary.

We get the government we deserve. Education, like religion, ought to have a "separation of state" clause.

Don't bet your lunch money on that happening.

Rory Ryan is publisher of The Highland County Press.