An article in The Tuscaloosa News Attorney accused of money laundering while finishing University of Alabama sorority house reported:

“Between 2013 and earlier this spring, prosecutors say Meehan, a former sorority member and president of the housing corporation board of the UA chapter of the sorority, is accused of submitting roughly $95,000 in false invoices for kitchen furnishings to Greek Resource Services, which handles accounting and finances for Greek organizations at the university. Prosecutors say Meehan is also accused of opening a bank account under a fraudulent business name and submitting about $375,000 in fraudulent invoices for furniture to Greek Resource Services. Prosecutors allege about $175,000 of the funds were transferred from the account of the dummy business into Meehan’s personal accounts. Meehan did not have an attorney listed in federal court records on Monday.”

Until an investigation into the underbelly of the University of Alabama’s Greek society and its notorious Machine is made the reality of life on an University, in which nearly thirty percent of its students are affiliated with the Greek system, will not be known. It’s high time for the administration to step up to the plate and do a comprehensive look at its dominant Greek culture.

Any visitor to the University of Alabama will be impressed by the Greek mansions, many of which rival educational buildings at the University in size. What indecorous activity goes on behind their massive doors?

Ed Enoch in the Tuscaloosa News reported on the new Judy Bonner Presidential Medallion Prize.

“The trustees accepted the $1 million to establish the prize in honor of Bonner’s legacy on Friday. Bonner was not at the meeting but released a statement through the university.

“’I am so honored that the Judy Bonner Presidential Medallion Prize will recognize our most deserving individuals who have positively impacted and made lasting contributions to the Capstone experience for our undergraduate students,’ Bonner said. ‘I want to express my deep appreciation to Trustee and Dr. Johns for their strong support and love for the University of Alabama and by honoring me in this special way.’

“The earnings from the endowment will be used to honor members of the UA community who have made extraordinary contributions to the Alabama experience by positively impacting undergraduate students.”

In her “Letter from a concerned mother to Judy Bonner” Ann Smith wrote to Bonner:

“From our experiences at the University of Alabama the ‘Stand in the Schoolhouse Door’ appears to be shrine only. The monument is reflective of concrete only. Shouldn’t there be meaning behind this statue? Not a commemorative ceremony with distinctive guests but with real meaning?”

Smith was concerned about the treatment of her daughter but was more concerned about the quality of Bonner’s leadership at the helm of The Capstone.

Bonner’s true legacy will not be represented by a medallion prize but by her inability to rein in the University of Alabama’s self appointed, over-privileged students who are affiliated with The Machine. Had Bonner stood them up against the wall in defiance of their wealthy, enabling alumni, perhaps their feckless reign of terror at the University might have ended.

That would have been something worthy of a prize.

It seemed as if the University of Alabama had turned a corner when its newly elected Student Government Association President Elliot Spillers proclaimed: “The entire Machine is not a bad organization. It took members within that organization to stand beside me and go against the grain and get me elected to this office. Just like the rest of us on campus, they’re ready for change. They’re ready for an inclusive environment on campus.”  Spillers was the first African-American elected to the position in four decades.

But Spillers has found that his power is limited by that same Machine that he had high hopes for. An editorial in the University of Alabama student newspaper The Crimson White opined: “The first black SGA president in nearly 40 years has had his first nomination blocked by the Senate. Those outside of the University of Alabama will not fail to note that this happened at an institution with a history of racial discrimination. This is nothing new for the University and the state of Alabama, but bad publicity has often brought much-needed change when the few stood in the way of the many.

Katie Smith with newly elected SGA President Elliot Spillers

The Machine’s anointed candidate for Student Government Association President  at the University was not elected.

Instead a candidate opposed to University politics as usual won.

As Melissa Brown reported: “Elliot Spillers, a junior from Pelham, is also considered to be the first non-Machine candidate to win the election since John Merrill (now Alabama’s Secretary of State) won in 1986.

“Spillers said he was ‘shocked and thankful’ after receiving the election results. ‘This is my third time at this, and each time I’ve grown tremendously as a leader and a person,’ Spillers said when reached by phone Tuesday evening. ‘I’ve never lost hope, hope for this university and what we’ll accomplish in the next year. The real work begins tomorrow. To all the students who voted for me, thank you. It’s because of you we have the opportunity to bring sustainable change here to Alabama.’

“Student newspaper The Crimson White reported voter turnout was the highest it has been in at least six years. Spillers received 8,602 of the 14,931 votes cast. 

“Spillers’ campaign manager Mark Hammontree said Tuesday the campaign and student involvement felt more energized than any other SGA election he’s seen during his time at UA. ‘Elliot has a quality that attracts people and energizes them and makes them believe change is actually possible,’ Hammontree said. ‘What really set his campaign apart was his ability to make people from all parts of campus feel they have a place in his campaign. Therefore, potentially, if he won they would feel like they have a place in the SGA, and the SGA would be representative of all of campus, as it should be.’

“Hammontree called certain Greek support for Spillers’ campaign ‘huge,’ particularly the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity’s decision to hang a Spillers banner from the front of their house on campus. Early Thursday morning, two unidentified men were caught on surveillance tape stealing the banner, according to The Crimson White.

“Spillers will be the second black president in the SGA’s 100-year history, following Cleo Thomas’s election in 1976. Thomas is thought to have recruited significant supporters within the sorority community, along with independent students, to buck the Machine, a secret group of traditionally white fraternities and sororities who are thought to have controlled campus institutions for decades.”

“Southern Man” lyrics by Neil Young:

Southern man
better keep your head
Don’t forget
what your good book said
Southern change
gonna come at last
Now your crosses
are burning fast

The words from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s immortal “I Have A Dream” speech are far from realized in the predominately racially segregated Greek system at the University of Alabama. Unless new leadership at the University dares confront the powerful Greek system yet another year will pass before King’s vision of equality is fulfilled.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

The key to as to why Charter Schools are promoted by such people as Jeb Bush and the Koch brothers is that they can generate a lot of profit for well placed entrepreneurs in the education “reform” racket.

Jeff Bryant in Salon reported: “In 2014, charter schools, which had always been marketed for a legendary ability to deliver promising new innovations for education, became known primarily for their ability to concoct innovative new scams.

“A story that appeared at Forbes in late 2013 foretold a lot of what would emerge in 2014. That post ‘Charter School Gravy Train Runs Express to Fat City’ brought to light for the first time in a mainstream source the financial rewards that were being mined from charter schools. As author Addison Wiggin explained, a mixture of tax incentives, government programs and Wall Street investors eager to make money were coming together to deliver a charter school bonanza – especially if the charter operation could ‘escape scrutiny’ behind the veil of being privately held or if the charter operation could mix its business in ‘with other ventures that have nothing to do with education.’

“As 2014 began, more stories about charter schools scandals continued to drip out from local press outlets – a chain of charter schools teaching creationism, a charter school closing abruptly for mysterious reasons, a charter high school operating as a for-profit ‘basketball factory,’ recruiting players from around the world while delivering a sub-par education.

“Here and there, stories emerged: a charter school trying to open up inside the walls of a gated community while a closed one continued to get more than $2 million in taxpayer funds. Stories about charter operators being found guilty of embezzling thousands of taxpayer dollars turned into other stories about operators stealing even more thousands of dollars, which turned into even more stories about operators stealing over a million dollars.

“While some charter schools schemed to steer huge percentages of their money away from instruction toward management salaries and property leases (to firms connected to the charter owners, of course), others worked the system to make sure fewer students with special needs were in their classrooms.

“Then the steady drip-drip from local news sources turned into a fire hose in May when a blockbuster report released by Integrity in Education and the Center for Popular Democracy revealed, ‘Fraudulent charter operators in 15 states are responsible for losing, misusing, or wasting over $100 million in taxpayer money.’

“The report, ‘Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud And Abuse,’ combed through news stories, criminal records and other documents to find hundreds of cases of charter school operators embezzling funds, using tax dollars to illegally support other, non-educational businesses, taking public dollars for services they didn’t provide, inflating their enrollment numbers to boost revenues, and putting children in potential danger by forgoing safety regulations or withholding services.

“The Center for Popular Democracy, Integrity in Education and ACTION United published a continuation of their charter schools study with a new report that disclosed charter school officials in Pennsylvania had defrauded at least $30 million intended for schoolchildren since 1997.

“Startling examples of charter school financial malfeasance revealed by the authors included an administrator who diverted $2.6 million in school funds to a church property he also operated. Another charter school chief was caught spending millions in school funds to bail out other nonprofits associated with the school. A pair of charter school operators stole more than $900,000 from the school by using fraudulent invoices, and a cyberschool entrepreneur diverted $8 million of school funds for houses, a Florida condominium and an airplane.

“Then, in November, the Center for Popular Democracy, with the Alliance for Quality Education, submitted yet another continuation of its analysis of charter school financial fraud, this time finding as much as $54 million in suspected charter school fraud in New York state.

“More recently, a widely circulated report from progressive news outlet ProPublica revealed how charter schools increasingly use arrangements known as ‘sweeps’ contracts to send nearly all of a school’s public dollars – anywhere from 95 to 100 percent — into for-profit charter-management companies.

“Surveys show the public generally doesn’t get what charter schools are and don’t understand whether they are private or public or whether they can charge fees or teach religion. Charter operators themselves have muddled their image by arguing successfully in numerous confrontations with legal authorities that ‘they are exempt from rules that govern traditional public schools, ranging from labor laws to constitutional protections for students.’

“But a recent poll in Michigan, a state where rampant charter fraud has been well publicized, found that 73 percent of responders say they want a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools.

“Forecasts about what 2015 will bring to the education landscape frequently foresee more charter schools as charter-friendly lawmakers continue to act witlessly to proliferate these schools. But make no mistake, the charter school scandals of 2014 forever altered the narrative about what these institutions really bring to the populace.”

In the 2013 municipal election an “Educate Tuscaloosa” PAC attempted to take over the Tuscaloosa School Board. A record breaking amount of money was poured into the race through the PAC that used a “Save Tuscaloosa Schools” website.

Supporters of “Save Tuscaloosa Schools” always claimed that they were not advocates for “charter schools.” Some speculation on what the attempt to unseat every incumbent was all about involved a land deal.

In any event the voters may have resented the huge amount of money that was spent defeating incumbents. All were re-elected, except for Board Member Kelly Horwitz who lost due to the machination of The Machine at the University of Alabama.

Recently The Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) made a presentation at a Tuscaloosa City Council meeting. The BAEO is a front group for the Corporate Education Reform Industry. The Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) is an organization dedicated to the eradication of public schools. It received much of its funding from the Walton Family.

According to Media Transparency, BAEO is “actually a project of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning headed by Howard Fuller, at Marquette University.”

The Corporate Education Reform Industry has ties to primarily Republican politicians and their supporters. Both the Walton Family and the Koch Brothers are supporters of Jeb Bush.

The Washington Post’s Tom Hamburger and Lyndsey Layton reported on December 31, 2014: “Bush’s reputation as an school reformer stems from his work on K-12 education as governor and as the head of his Foundation for Excellence in Education. He has been an advocate for online learning as a tool to expand opportunities for students.

“While Bush’s association with the company began several years after he left office, Best contacted him about a possible business partnership before his departure from Tallahassee. The Texas businessman had connections to the Bush family, having raised money for the successful presidential campaigns of Bush’s older brother, George W. Bush.

“After the two men met, Best sent Bush an e-mail in April 2005 touting a ‘huge global business opportunity’ that could come from a “post-secondary initiative” he said they had previously discussed. He said he hoped Bush found the idea ‘intriguing.’

“’If you are interested, let’s continue our discussions as you begin to think about returning to the private sector after you leave office,’ Best wrote in the e-mail, which was obtained by The Post as part of a public-records request.”

The supporters of the Educate Tuscaloosa PAC were mostly Republicans. Some had contributed generously to GOP candidates. They would be very comfortable in the “reform” crowd. The PACs that are run by Mike Echols give to conservative “business” candidates. Some of the money that has come from out-of-state to his PACs is untraceable. It could easily have come from some of the supporters of The Corporate Education Reform Industry.

The people behind The Black Alliance for Educational Options may have nothing to do with those who tried to take over the local school board, but they are likely in the same boat. It may well be that the Educate Tuscaloosa PAC supporters have no connections to charter schools.

But just because the attack on the incumbents in the local school system largely failed, that does not mean that there are no forces working to change the way public schools are run outside of the election process.

The presentation by representatives of The Black Alliance for Educational Options ( the graphic used above was from their website ) to the Tuscaloosa City Council was accompanied by emails to Council members. Hopefully the Council will not be taken in by this “astro-turf” group. Its representatives were paid well to spread its gospel in T-Town.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

Madison Square Garden can seat 20,000 people for a concert. This blog was viewed about 62,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Madison Square Garden, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Judy Bonner won’t be getting another letter from a concerned mother.

No. She’s stepping down from her position as President at the University of Alabama.

Her press release said: “To all who know me – my faculty colleagues, our dedicated staff, our outstanding students, and our loyal alumni – you can imagine that this was not an easy decision to make. Like many other Alabama families, ours, too, has a long and deep connection to this special place. More than 100 years ago, our grandfather graduated from The University of Alabama and, earlier this semester, my niece began her freshman year. Four generations of my family have called the Capstone home, and Alabama’s first university has been – and will always be – an integral part of my life.” 

Bonner attended the ribbon cutting for the Omicron Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. The building was said to be the “greatest fraternity house on campus.” Pi Kappa Phi’s credo was: “A house, a grip, a badge, a song, an emblem. These do not make the fraternity. It is the unseen things: friendship, brotherhood, character, honor, courage, ideals. These make the fraternity and the man.”

But there was always a fly in the ointment. “Brotherhood,” when it came to having a black brother or sister, was relative. Bonner took modest efforts to integrate the University’s Greek system. Many who dealt with the University on issues related to student ethics felt that Bonner was constrained by the cozy relationship that the University’s administration had with the Greek system. Nearly thirty percent of the student body are Greeks and many come from wealthy and powerful families.

Bonner’s position on the sabotaging of the local school board election by The Machine was never made clear. Students living in Alabama and out of state students were bribed by promises of free alcohol and given limo rides to the polls for voting for a Machine candidate in the heavily student dominated Fourth District.

The saying “if you can’t stand the heat you’d better get back in the shade” may apply here. The question is what “teflon coated” new President will be crowned at the University?

Bonner’s brother Jo? ( He left Congress to assume a vice chancellorship position at the University. ) Condi Rice? ( She has participated in the “coin toss” before an Alabama football game and was for a time Provost at Stanford University. )

Whoever takes Bonner’s place will probably not “boldly go where no man has gone before.” The “status quo ante bellum” that existed before all of the negative publicity about racial discrimination at the University will doubtlessly be continued. But the new leader may be more capable of lying through his or her teeth while grinning broadly.

At the SEC Championship game among the fans in the stadium who were wearing suits and ties were members of the University of Alabama Greek organizations. They cheered boisterously when Alabama’s quarterback Blake Sims walked victoriously on the grid iron after the Crimson Tide won the SEC title game. Alongside Sims walked his beautiful five year-old daughter Kyla. She was even interviewed on CBS-TV.

Sims said, “When you have a precious little daughter like I do, I’m very blessed to have her. I didn’t want to spend that moment without her and I’m just glad that her mother gave her the opportunity to come to the game and I’m glad she’s here to experience this with me.”

Kyla might even want to join a sorority at the University someday. Who knows? By the time she’s old enough to attend the University there might be an opportunity for her to pledge in one of the traditionally segregated “white” sororities. Of course there are also sororities that have always been predominantly black.

A reader of this blog commented on the letter to Judy Bonner that concerned her daughter’s experience with the Greek system at the University: “I think that it is a good thing that this family sent their daughter to the University of Alabama. Perhaps there she learned the most important lesson, that life is not fair. While we all are created equal, all are not born equally advantaged. People do have a right to chose their friends and reject others. Americans have a constitutional right of freedom of assocaition [sic] and the right to exclude, in private clubs (fraternities and soroities ) [sic] those with whom they do not wish to associate. Do feelings get hurt? Yes, get over it. Move on. Change your attitude. Change your life.”

The individual who made such a comment seems to assume that exclusion of people from “private clubs” is a “constitutional right.” The state of Alabama charges $100 yearly to rent the property that fraternal organizations use. The fair market price for such property has been estimated to be as much as several hundred thousand dollars annually. Loans for the construction of fraternities and sororities have been provided by the University as well. Perhaps if the fraternal organizations at a public university were located on privately owned property and did not benefit from the financial incentives provided by the University they might be more legitimately considered as “private clubs.” No formal affiliation with the University should be allowed in that case. Even then, racial discrimination might not be “constitutional.”

The members of Greek organizations who, while cheering black athletes, would not want them in their “private clubs” are part of an intractable problem where the privileged rule that exists at the University. The Student Government Association is dominated by the Greeks. Even those who are elected in a municipal district of the city of Tuscaloosa are decided by the Greeks. Nearly thirty percent of the University’s students are Greeks. The administration at the University of Alabama appears to have been reluctant in providing much ethical guidance to those in the Greek system.

Student athletes participate in sports because of scholarships, the desire to compete and the prospect, for a few, of a lucrative professional sports career. Perhaps most of them could care less about the discriminatory policies of the Greek organizations that are enabled by the University’s administration. A star football player might not even care if his daughter might be excluded someday from their ranks. Maybe he understands that “life is not fair”?