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After School, It's Time for Pork: Governor, Lawmakers Funnel $12 Million to Their Pet Projects

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 June 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Diane Rado, Stephanie Banchero and David Mendell, Chicago Tribune

Jun. 28--In a new kind of political pork, state officials awarded $12 million to more than 100 non-profit groups, businesses, schools and churches for after-school programs that, in some cases, served few students or failed to deliver on their promises, the Tribune has found.

The sister of a state senator got $25,000 to run a drama program that had only four students.

A Chicago woman and her son received $30,000 to teach a hip-hop exercise class for 12 to 20 students at a shopping mall.

A religious group was given $30,000 to run an arts program at an elementary school, but never did. Instead, two group members patrolled the lunchroom and counseled some students about behavior problems.

And $5,180 of the after-school money went to pay off debts--including an old tuition bill--that recipients owed the state.

The grants were earmarked by Gov. Rod Blagojevich and a handful of influential state legislators acting on behalf of friends and constituents. The politicians split up the money and chose the recipients, even though the groups had not filed grant applications or had their credentials checked.

The coming school year will bring a second round of grants totaling more than $24 million. The governor and lawmakers have picked more than 200 groups to share the pot.

Randy Dunn, the Illinois schools superintendent, said in an interview that he distributed the money because the governor's office and lawmakers wanted the projects, and because Illinois has a tradition of accommodating those types of requests. Still, he acknowledged discomfort with the process.

"It's not really our preferred way of doing business," Dunn said. "I do think a preferred model is to accept grant proposals, so all the ideas can be evaluated, one against the other."

Becky Carroll, a spokeswoman for the governor, defended the process, saying it was a way to address black lawmakers' priorities and get dollars to black communities for after-school programs. Smaller groups, she said, may be at a disadvantage competing with established and well-financed groups in a bidding process.

Some grants went to well-established organizations with a history of community service. For instance, Boys and Girls Clubs in the Chicago area were awarded $255,000. The Little Black Pearl Workshop, a non-profit agency opened in 1994, got $28,000. It provides arts and culture programs primarily to low-income children in the Kenwood and Oakland neighborhoods on the South Side.

Another, for $25,000, went to the Sue Duncan Children's Center, a long-running and well-regarded tutoring program run by the mother of Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan.

The largest grant, $4.5 million, went to After School Matters, the non-profit started by Maggie Daley, the wife of Mayor Richard Daley.

Twenty-one grants went to schools or school districts.

An unusual process

Awarding money for legislators' pet projects is a common practice--one that Blagojevich vowed to stamp out when he first ran for governor in 2002. Critics blame the costs of such limited-interest projects--commonly known as pork--for driving up the cost of government. But even by Illinois standards, the process for giving out the after-school money was unusual.

Generally, the Illinois State Board of Education awards grant money after a rigorous application process. In this case, however, the groups filed their grant applications after the $12 million pot had been divided among them. Even then, some of the applications provided scant information about how the money would be used.

The Tribune contacted two dozen of the organizations, and many said they could not provide details about how many children they served or how they spent their money.

Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) an assistant majority leader, designated $25,000 for a group run by his sister, Shebeta Carter. In her application--filed with the state board after Hendon earmarked the grant--Carter said she planned to teach eight to 10 students "positive life skills through the journey of doing a stage-play from A-Z."

Carter told the Tribune she planned to stage a play that her daughter had written. Initially, she said, about 10 Marshall High School students signed up, but the number quickly dwindled to four. So, instead, the group spent several months putting on "inspirational" skits, learning how to apply theatrical makeup and mastering the techniques of camera work, she said.

"This is a good program," she said. "Anytime you help people, it's a good thing, especially those who are underprivileged."

The grant recipients were designated on two lists: "Governor's Special Projects" and "Legislative Special Projects."

Legislators hand out funds

Hendon earmarked 41 grants, more than anyone else. Sen. Donne Trotter (D-Chicago), chairman of a Senate appropriations committee, was next with 12; Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood), chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, sponsored nine; and Senate newcomer Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) sponsored 11.

Sen. Arthur Wilhelmi, a Will County Democrat, sponsored grants to 11 Will County school districts, and House Republican Leader Tom Cross got a $1 million grant that was used largely to fill budget gaps in Troy School District 30C, the records show.

Another grant sponsored by Hendon went to Anita Jahshana Brooks, whose College Preparatory Educational Center had its address in a modest house in Midlothian. In a handwritten application, she provided no information about her qualifications, nor did the form ask for any. She got $30,000.

She wrote that her program would provide the "tools & training in GED, aides Prevention Information on testing, Resource center for Information. Bilingual class arts, & computer classes." She planned to offer the program at Marshall High School in Chicago.

Gwendolyn Boyd, principal of Marshall, said during an interview in her office that she did not know Brooks. But when a reporter pointed to a gospel music CD on Boyd's desk with "Jahshana" on the label, Boyd said that jogged her memory.

"I didn't remember the name at first, but yes, I met with her once," Boyd said. "She was working with the kids and parents to introduce them to her gospel CD. She didn't work with the kids in after-school."

An hour later, Boyd telephoned the reporter to say that, after talking with her staff, she recalled that Brooks had run an after-school program for about 20 students in which she taught voice and piano lessons.

Attempts to contact Brooks were unsuccessful.

Boyd said that both Carter's and Brooks' programs will help students get into college. "Anytime students can put on their resume that they took band, or worked on plays or sang in the choir, that helps," she said.

Hendon praised his sister's program and said he was right to provide money to her and direct money to his district.

Senator defends program

"My job is to appropriate and legislate," Hendon said. "I read the job description before I ran for senator. If I was in the U.S. Congress, I think all the newspapers would be saying that I am doing a great job bringing back money. Why shouldn't I be doing that for my state legislative district?"

Hendon also sponsored a grant for "Hip Hop-ercised," a non-profit group formed to battle childhood obesity through exercise. Tobias Redmond, a nurse's aide who ran the program with his mother, said about 12 to 20 children showed up. He said it ran for several months in a now-closed shopping mall at Cicero and North Avenues.

Other programs seemed to diverge from their stated purpose.

The Al-Malik Temple for Universal Truth proposed to run an arts education program at Morton Elementary School in Chicago's depressed West Humboldt Park neighborhood. Its grant, sponsored by Hendon, was $30,000.

The application said each student would "discover the true meaning and influence of his birth date, day-of-week born, and name associated with such in the African culture." It also said students would use artistic expression to "explore pattern recognition in fossils, bones, seashells and wood."

Carmella Lewis, executive director of the group, said they changed plans once they got inside the school. "It was volatile," she said. "We could not teach the arts program, because we had to help get the kids under control."

In the end, two group members monitored the lunchroom and counseled two dozen students, according to Vivian Redd, Morton's principal. She said the counseling sessions helped her students.

The recipients were supposed to file periodic reports about how they spent the money, but 29 did not file some or all reports, records show. If they do not file final reports, due after Friday, the state will demand that the money be returned, according to a state board spokeswoman.

In five cases, the state comptroller's office took after-school money to pay off debts owed to the state by grant recipients. The debts included $2,261 in payroll taxes, $1,140 owed to the Department of Central Management Services, $272 to Northeastern Illinois University for a class one of the recipients took, and state tax bills of $1,447 and $60.

Alan Henry, a spokesman for the comptroller, said the agency's computer system automatically deducts the debt from payments made to grant recipients.

The Illinois State Board of Education had no answer Tuesday to a written question about whether the five grant recipients had made up for the money taken out of the grants.

drado@tribune.com

sbanchero@tribune.com

dmendell@tribune.com

Tribune researcher Brenda Kilianski contributed to this report

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Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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