The DOE crew's heartless plan with the homeless children is all too common corruption

In an act of cartoonish villainy, six Department of Education employees stole valuable seats from homeless children to take their own children and grandchildren on multi-day, taxpayer-funded trips, including to Disney World, according to the city's special investigator for schools.

The ringleader of the affair appears to be Linda M. Wilson, a supervisor of DOE's Students in Temporary Housing, who took her own two daughters on the trips and encouraged her colleagues to do the same. She then attempted to cover it up by allegedly encouraging her colleagues to lie to SCI investigators.

With the help of a $300,000 federal grant from the National Center for Homeless Education, from 2016 to 2019 the callous gang forged permission slips with the names of needy children who were “living in a homeless shelter, car, park or abandoned building” and forged parents' signatures so staff handpicked by Wilson could take their own children instead.

The homeless children came away empty-handed, while their well-connected peers were able to visit Washington, DC, New Orleans, Boston and other cities.

One informant claimed: “Few of the homeless students listed in the records actually participated in the trips.”

“Stealing candy from babies” is old-fashioned in comparison.

The SCI recommended that Finance Minister David Banks dismiss all six employees and demand compensation from them.

One of the six, Shaquieta Boyd, even dared to claim that Wilson “encouraged it, and I had no reason to believe it was against the rules.”

As if the rules allow steal from homeless people.

But in the city's public school system, this “do whatever you can” mentality is widespread and is fueled by a general lack of responsibility.

Take, for example, former Energy Secretary Eric Goldstein, who accepted bribes (allegedly in the millions) from Somma Foods to put chicken contaminated with metal and plastic on the plates of public school students, and received only a two-year prison sentence.

Or Amanda Lurie, a senior bureaucrat in the Office of Student Enrollment, who, according to SCI, barely showed up for work and sold clothes online during work hours – and was rewarded with a promotion and a $9,000 raise.

The The case ended with all six employees leaving the DOE – ultimately: The SCI report was not completed until January 2023, years after the events, and many were able to evade paying full compensation.

All this is further proof that the last The most important thing for the Big Apple’s school system is the children.