…And 1000s of School District adds up to a giant Enron.

UPDATED! Attorneys for Plaintiffs appeared in studio TODAY at 11:00 AM.

Listen Here!

Remember Enron?  Remember what it was all about?  Power Contracts, fake consortia, kick backs, and no-bid contracts….

All that and more is now locked and loaded in a school district near you.

Suit filed over fees for school utilities

Energy Consortium Collects Millions

The consortium has electricity contracts in about 300 districts–about a third of the total in Illinois–and gas contracts in about 185 districts, officials said.

"We’re not in this to try to make money, and everything I have tried to do through my eight years’ involvement is to try to maximize the amount of savings that go to schools," said David Grace, who helped start the consortium and is its administrator. He also is superintendent of Lincoln Elementary School District 156 in south Cook County.

…

But the consortium’s estimates vary significantly. In a court document in June, a consultant said schools have saved more than $12 million on electricity over six years. A few months later, an organization newsletter stated that schools have saved more than $21 million since 1999.

A consortium consultant told the Tribune that savings figures can differ based on how, and over what time period, they are calculated.

Everyone, that’s double speak for lying out the wazoo.

District 211 officials argued the law did not require them to bid their energy contracts and sought to dismiss the lawsuit. So far, a judge has refused.

The dispute has reached Springfield, where lawmakers filed bills last month to force school districts to get bids for electricity and gas contracts.

Caught red-handed, the Superintendent/Administrator (Sith Lords) are now trying to get their bought and paid for minions (Legislators) to change the rules after the fact, despite the fact that you can’t legislate outcomes of a pending lawsuit.

"If you’re telling the world, or the circuit court, that you only charge what is necessary to cover the cost of the commodity, how do you then charge these fees that generate millions over time directed back to [the school associations]?" Rowden asked.

I’ve told you once, and I’ll tell you 1000 more times, Public Education has become a money laundering scheme for a privatized and protected class of mediocrities.  If you and your neighbors and any sense of outrage, these people would be frog marched like Jeffery Skilling and Ken Lay.

As things are in Illinois, nothing will happen.  Like Jersey County, this is just another angle for the pigs to approach the trough, and your unwarranted (dingbat) sense of loyalty to your kid’s teacher is preventing justice.

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