Are Chicago Public Schools Inflating Attendance Records For Cash?: Former Teachers, Staffers Suggest Fraud Is Widespread, As Schools Go For Federal $

CBS Chicago reports:

Your tax dollars are paying to educate kids who are not even in school.

CBS 2's Dave Savini investigates allegations that officials at Chicago Public Schools may be altering school attendance records to get more government aid.

Terrence Figures was enrolled as a senior last year at B.E.S.T. High School, formerly known as James H. Bowen High School, but he says he dropped out. That is when he became a "ghost student."

"I was never there," Figures said.

Spring 2009 attendance records for Figures show he was marked as "present" on days that he says he was not in school.

"That was a lie because I was off working," Figures said.

For 10 months, an inspector general investigation has been underway into alleged fraud at B.E.S.T., yet there has been no action. Figures says nobody has contacted him, even though he's living proof of ghosting in the school system.

The work of the devil.Mail and wire fraud? RICO? To call for a criminal investigation click on this. Or this. No word yet from former CPS CEO Arne Duncan on this one.