SAHR was formed in January, promoted as a one-stop shop for lobbying and political affairs. With Dax Swatek at the helm, I wondered how long it would take for SAHR to be exposed as crooked. Well, it didn't take long.
How does the education scam work? Here is how Bob Lowry describes it:
The money, part of an "at risk fund" controlled by Dr. Joe Morton, state superintendent, was paid to the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools (CLAS), which hired a Birmingham software company to provide an after-school learning program based on video games called Kids College.
The software company, Learning Through Sports Inc., was formerly a partnership between Brian Shulman, a former Auburn football player, and Auburn Network Inc., a multimedia company owned by House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn.
Hubbard, president of Auburn Network, sold his interest in Learning Through Sports in 2005 to Shulman, according to a letter on file at the Alabama Ethics Commission. Hubbard declined to be interviewed for this story. But he said in a statement that he trusts Morton's judgment in the matter.
It appears that CLAS is used as an intermediary, to help hide where state-education dollars really are going. Reports Lowry:
Because public money is channeled through CLAS, a private group, state spending records don't show how much of the $13.1 million went to the software company and how much CLAS has retained to administer what Morton calls an innovative after-school learning program that the state can't otherwise offer.
Why has the state school board been kept out of the loop? Its members are asking that very question:
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