From Left Field

PITTSBURGH - A suburban Pittsburgh school district is reviewing whether it should continue paying for the children of Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) to attend a cyber school even though the senator and his family live in Virginia.

Penn Hills has spent $100,000 educating Santorum's children at an Internet-based school since 2001-02, said Erin Vecchio, a school board member who requested the review. She is also head of the local Democratic committee.

"I'm concerned, because [he is] taking away from my kid. That $100,000... could be going to my kids, a computer or something," said Vecchio, who has three children enrolled in Penn Hills schools. "I'm sick of this man saying that he lives in Penn Hills when he doesn't."

Santorum's spokeswoman, Christine Shott, said she did not know whether the senator and his wife, who have six children, had ever stayed in the two-bedroom house they own in Penn Hills.

The Santorums bought the house for $87,800 in 1997, and it was assessed for $106,000 last year, records show.

The couple's home in Leesburg, Va., was assessed at $757,000 this year, tax records show.

Under Pennsylvania's 2002 cyber-school law, the district in which a student lives must pay the cost of tuition for students enrolled in cyber charter schools. Virginia has no such provision.

Vecchio asked the school superintendent to conduct a formal review at a board meeting this week.

"As we would do in any case, for any citizen, if there is a question of residency, the staff is looking into it," Penn Hills School Superintendent Patricia Gennari told the Associated Press.

Shott said the senator, now in his second term, was a resident of Penn Hills and paid taxes on the property. She said she did not know and could not comment on whether the family ever stayed at the home or rented it out.

Shott said Santorum was not available yesterday to comment.

It is not unusual for U.S. senators to have homes in or near Washington. But, at age 46, Santorum is not your typical senator. He is the fifth-youngest member in a chamber where the average age is 64 and most of his colleagues do not have to worry about where to send their children to school.

As part of his duties as a senator and head of the Republican Conference, Santorum travels often; his children often accompany him, something made possible by their taking classes through the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, Shott said. She added that Santorum had visited each of Pennsylvania's 67 counties every year since he went to the Senate in 1994.

The Penn Hills Progress, a weekly newspaper, first reported last month that the district was paying for the Santorum children to take classes through the cyber school.

About a year after authorities say Linda Schrenko helped steal $614,000 in federal education funds, she filed for bankruptcy, claiming almost $70,000 in credit card debt and thousands more in unpaid medical bills.

Court records show Schrenko, the former state school superintendent, and her then-husband, Frank, filed for bankruptcy Oct. 27, 2003, listing little in the way of assets except their Grovetown home. Frank and Linda Schrenko have since divorced, and she now lives in nearby Martinez, an Augusta suburb.

In total, the couple listed $232,644 in liabilities and $172,615 in assets, of which their home accounted for $150,000. Schrenko, who was a longtime teacher and served as state superintendent from 1995 to 2003, listed a state pension of about $48,000 a year.

Schrenko, who in 1994 became the first woman elected to partisan statewide office, was released on $40,000 bail Monday after surrendering to federal authorities. She was indicted last week on charges she conspired with her former chief deputy, Merle Temple of Evans, and Alpharetta computer consultant A. Stephan Botes to steal money purportedly designated to help Georgia's two state schools for the deaf and the governor's honor's program.

About $250,000 was diverted to Schrenko's failed campaign for governor in 2002, according to federal authorities.

Federal authorities say Schrenko filed false campaign disclosure reports to cover up the scheme. Campaign finance records indicate she repaid a $250,000 campaign loan to Regions Bank about three weeks after authorities say more than $500,000 in federal education funds were signed over to companies controlled by Botes.

The indictment also says Temple spent $9,300 of the money to pay for Schrenko's cosmetic surgery.

Her lawyer, Pete Theodocion of Augusta, said Schrenko suffers from physical problems from an auto accident, and her bankruptcy shows several debts to doctors and hospitals. Among them is a $10,000 to a "Dr. Cooper." Her daughter, Katherine Cooper, is a dentist whose practice is located at the address listed on the filing.

Another $30,000 is owed in loans from Household Finance in Augusta and SunTrust Bank.

The biggest debts were on credit cards, according to the bankruptcy records. American Express is listed as being owed $6,727. BB&T was owed another $47,622 in credit card debt; BP Amoco $1,429; Discover $274; Macy's $1,087; MBNA $391; and SunTrust $10,703, according to the filing.

Collection agencies are listed as trying to recoup more than $20,000, with some of the debt being owed to retail companies, including Sears.

It was an entrance that might have seemed better suited to a red carpet than a federal courtroom.

Linda Schrenko, the fashion-conscious former Georgia school superintendent, smiled for the television cameras while wearing a dramatic camel-colored coat with fur-looking collar and cuffs when she showed up Monday morning to surrender to authorities.

Two hours later, Schrenko appeared somber as she was led before a judge in handcuffs to face charges of stealing $614,000 in federal education funds, much of it allegedly diverted to her failed campaign for governor — and $9,300 for a face-lift.

Schrenko pleaded innocent and was released on $40,000 bond. She was also ordered to submit to drug tests after she disclosed that she takes a variety of prescription medications for neck and back pain from an auto accident more than a decade ago.

Schrenko declined to comment on the charges as she made her way through a pack of reporters and cameramen in the federal courthouse parking lot. Inside, she was fingerprinted, photographed and required to wait in a small holding cell before making her initial court appearance.

Schrenko, 54, is charged in an 18-count federal indictment, along with her former chief deputy, Merle Temple Jr., 56, of Evans, and Alpharetta computer consultant A. Stephan Botes, 47.

Temple and Botes also pleaded innocent Monday. Temple, who also was led into court in handcuffs, was released on $40,000 bond. Botes was arrested earlier this month and released on bond last week.

In 1994, Schrenko, a former teacher, became the first woman to win statewide elected office in Georgia and the first Republican to run the state's education agency. She was re-elected in 1998 and was considered a leading candidate for governor in 2002.

The federal indictment accuses Schrenko, Temple and Botes of working a scheme to steal federal education funds and secretly funnel about half the money to Schrenko's race for governor, which she lost in the Republican primary. The government accuses Schrenko of using $9,300 of the money to pay for cosmetic surgery.

Schrenko's attorney, Pete Theodocion of Augusta, said after the hearing Monday that he regrets so much attention has been paid to "a face-lift," which Schrenko had around the time of the 2002 elections.

As for Schrenko's wardrobe for her court appearance, Theodocion said the cloth coat probably cost no more than $150 and that his client "didn't come here wearing gold or diamonds and is not a person who's rolling around in money." The collar and cuffs were not fur, he said.

"We're planning on going to trial and counting on her being found not guilty," the lawyer said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Feldman asked Schrenko to describe her level of education. She replied that she had completed a six-year postgraduate program and had obtained a "leadership certificate," which allows her to be a school administrator.

Upon hearing that, the judge said there should be no question about Schrenko's ability to read, write and understand the English language, a common question defendants are asked to make sure they understand the charges against them.

"Hope not," replied Schrenko, who championed phonics-based reading programs as state school superintendent.

Feldman ordered Schrenko to submit to drug tests after he was handed a list of the prescription medications she is taking. "You're taking some strong medication, as you well know," the judge said.

He also ordered Schrenko to turn over a firearm she owns to her daughter, who lives in Evans.

As the hearing adjourned, a deputy marshal walked up to Schrenko, put the handcuffs back on her and took her to the marshal's office, where she was later released.

Schrenko, who lives in the Augusta suburb of Martinez, was driven to Monday's court hearing by a family friend. Theodocion said Schrenko lost her driver's license after twice losing consciousness while driving earlier this year. No one was injured in the incidents, the lawyer said, adding they were caused by a blood condition that requires prescription medication.

Conservatives have seized on the notion that the "moral values" of the religious right determined the recent election. As Frank Rich of the New York Times points out, however, "There's only one problem with the storyline proclaiming that the country swung to the right on cultural issues in 2004…it is fiction." According to a new poll co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress, Res Publica and Pax Christi, there actually is a new silent majority in America: a coalition of religious moderates, progressives and other non-traditional religious voters. "This bloc of religious voters constitutes 54 percent of the electorate and holds very similar moderate-to-progressive views on domestic and national security issues" such as economic justice and the war in Iraq. By comparison, religious conservatives make up less than a quarter of the national electorate. (For more on the changing focus of the new "silent majority," read the new op-ed by American Progress's John Podesta and John Halpin.)

Of the $184.3 million in charity donations raised by professional fundraisers in New York during 2002, less than a third of the money went to charities, according to a report released Dec. 28 by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Only 31 percent of the money raised in 607 professionally run telemarketing campaigns -- $57.1 million -- wound up financing the charity the fund raising was conducted for. The rest of the money went to cover telemarketer costs and profits.

The annual report, entitled "Pennies for Charity, Where Your Money Goes: Telemarketing by Professional Fund Raisers," is based on the information collected by the attorney general's charities bureau on professional telemarketing campaigns conducted during 2002.

The Better Business Bureau recommends that a charitable organization should take in at least 65 percent of the money donated through fundraising campaigns.

In the attorney general's report, nine companies were found to have turned over 12 percent or less of the money they raised to the charity that hired them for campaigns in New York. The companies were:
Telesystems Marketing Inc., located in Houston, Texas (12 percent);
Community Affairs Inc., located in Pompano, Fla. (11 percent);
LAS LLC, based in Washington, D.C. (11 percent);
Theodore Productions Inc., located in Gettysburg, Pa. (10.3 percent);
Nationwide Fundraisers Inc., located in Naples, Fla. (10 percent);
DirectLine Technologies Inc., based Modesto, Calif. (9.1 percent);
Integral Resources, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. (8.4 percent);
Bee LC, with offices in McLean, Va. (8.2 percent);
George Carden Circus International, headquartered in Springfield, Mass. (2 percent);

Charities kept more than 65 percent of the money raised in only 42 of the 607 campaigns, according to Spitzer's office. Charities were found to have received less than half of the money raised in more than 78 percent of the campaigns, while 25 charities actually lost money.

Schenectady-based Capital District Callers took in gross receipts of $575,257 for seven charities during 2002, and on average, turned over 50 percent to 55 percent to the charity, the report found.

"This annual report makes two key points," Spitzer said in a written statement. "First, donors need to make informed decisions prior to making a charitable contribution. In many cases, it is better to give money directly to a charity than to a professional fundraiser."

Spitzer also called on board members of charitable organizations to take a more active role in fundraising decisions in order to maximize the amount the charity receives.

The report can be found at the attorney general's website.

There's nothing like sparking a hysterical visit by the Secret Service to your high school to confirm every worst suspicion that a teenager could have about the idiocy of adults.

The members of "Coalition of the Willing," a band of students from Boulder High School, plan to sing Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" at the school talent show tonight. But when rumors surfaced on local talk radio that the band had changed the lyrics of the song during a rehearsal to threaten to kill the President, the feds were called in, according to multiple local and national news reports.

The lyrics of the anti-war anthem include: You might say that I'm young / You might say I'm unlearned / But there's one thing I know / Though I'm younger than you / Even Jesus would never / Forgive what you do

And the song ends:

And I hope that you die / And your death'll come soon / I will follow your casket / In the pale afternoon / And I'll watch while you're lowered / Down to your deathbed / And I'll stand o'er your grave / 'Til I'm sure that you're dead.

The students maintain they just rehearsed the song as its written. The Secret Service reportedly stayed at the school about 20 minutes on Thursday, and took a copy of the song's lyrics with them when they left, satisfied that President Bush was not in danger from them.

Paging Bob Dylan! He should offer to give a free concert at the school to thank the "Coalition of the Willing." The students could play back-up. In any case, the clever members of the band will have good fodder for their college application essays.