N.J. State Senator, Former Dean Indicted

The AP reports on stealing in New Jersey:

A once-powerful New Jersey lawmaker was indicted Thursday on corruption charges tied to a state medical school job that a federal monitor said paid him $35,000 a year to do little more than read the newspaper.

State Sen. Wayne Bryant, a former chairman of the budget committee, was named in a 20-count indictment released by U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.

Also indicted was R. Michael Gallagher, former dean at the University of Medicine and Dentistry's School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford.

The charges stem from a federal monitor's report in September that looked into alleged corruption at the state medical school, which promotes itself as the nation's largest health sciences university.

The monitor found the school created a job for Bryant in 2003 and that he showed up only one morning per week at most and did little more than read newspapers, yet was paid $35,000 per year. Over four years, Bryant helped bring $12.8 million in state money to the school through his role as the Senate budget chairman.

The indictment accuses Gallagher of creating a job expressly for Bryant.

Public education isn't about altruism: you might say it's financed by large scale theft.