Complaints of misconduct by city Department of Education employees have skyrocketed, but the agency charged with investigating them opens only a tiny fraction of cases each year, records show.
The Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools fielded an all-time record 11,874 complaints of alleged wrongdoing by educators and other school workers and vendors in 2024, but launched probes of just 484 — or 4%, according to its 2024 annual report.
“We certainly need more funding for investigations, but I don’t know if the administration has the resolve for it. They really don’t,” said City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), who has called for a federal probe of “deep-rooted fraud” in the DOE.
“The system actually encourages corruption, because if you’re caught, nothing happens,” he said.
An undisclosed number of DOE employees are fired or resign as a result of the SCI findings, but Holden noted that some accused educators and exiled principals get paid to idle indefinitely in a disciplinary “rubber room” – an office or at home.
Examples include:
–After a two-year SCI investigation, Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir was ousted as principal of Maspeth High School in 2022, following a Post report on his fraudulent schemes to raise the school’s graduation rate. In a sweetheart deal, the DOE agreed not to fire him, and to keep him on the payroll – with paid vacations, holidays and benefits – for seven years until he retires in 2029. He made $207,418 last year alone.
–Oneatha Swinton, convicted of car-insurance fraud in 2018, was removed as principal of Port Richmond HS but kept on the payroll – despite what the SCI called her “pattern of dishonesty.” She improperly funneled $100,000 in school funds to a vendor, and “failed to safeguard” 600 DOE computers, printers and laptops which vanished under her watch, investigators found. She collected $219,245 last year.
–Townsend Harris HS teacher Joseph Canzoneri brought a former female student to an apartment where he plied her with wine and marijuana before they had intercourse and oral sex, the SCI charged in 2019. SCI recommended that Canzoneri be fired, but the ex-student refused to testify so the case was dropped, and he kept his job. When student journalists exposed his return to the school, Canzoneri was booted, but kept on the city payroll. He collected $140,794 last year.
Critics suggest that Mayor Adams, like his predecessors who control city schools, isn’t eager to expose theft, fraud, and abuse – or to antagonize the politically powerful teachers’ and principals’ unions, UFT and CSA, which protect and defend members accused of wrongdoing.
The SCI, led by Anastasia Coleman since 2018, has rebuffed criticism that it has gone too easy on City Hall.
In late 2019, SCI whistleblowers sent three city councilmen an anonymous complaint saying investigators had been told to hold off on allegations against ex-Mayor Bill De Blasio, who was running for president; his wife Chirlane McCray; then-Chancellor Richard Carranza, and top aides. A hearing on the allegations was canceled when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Coleman denied “slow-walking” the probes.
The labor unions, namely UFT and CSA, “control the state Legislature” and undoubtedly influence the city’s curbed enthusiasm for exposing corruption, agreed Eric Nadelstern, a former deputy chancellor under Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
The SCI has an annual budget of $6.3 million — .02% of the DOE’s staggering $39 billion budget. CSI has 55 staffers – including 33 investigators – to root out crime, corruption and sex abuse in the 140,000-employee DOE.
The Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget has not increased the watchdog’s budget in five years.
“I don’t have a reason, except I assume that people don’t want to be investigated,” City Councilwoman Gale Brewer told The Post. She has urged City Hall to steer more funding to the SCI.
Last year, the SCI conducted 146 investigations of inappropriate or sexual misconduct by
DOE employees, and substantiated allegations in 43 cases.
In 32 cases, the SCI identified the loss, theft, or mismanagement of more than $1 million — but could not say how much money the DOE recovered. The cases included six employees who “forged permission slips” to take their own kids and grandchildren to Disney World and on other trips meant for homeless students.
The SCI has helped city district attorneys bring criminal charges against DOE employees accused of stealing funds from schools.
This week, Special Commissioner Coleman joined federal prosecutors in Manhattan to announce a joint investigation resulting in guilty pleas by several educational consultants involved in a bid-rigging scheme that cheated the DOE of an estimated $141,511.
The SCI also serves as inspector general of the NYC Teachers Retirement System, another DOE pension system, and as the investigative arm of the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.
“SCI is a vital watchdog in New York City, with a mission to protect children from harm and to ensure the efficient operation of the school district,” Coleman said in the annual report.
DOE employees are required to report misconduct to the DOE; other complaints come from parents, vendors, other agencies and elected officials. The SCI chooses the “most serious” cases of “gross misconduct” to investigate, Coleman has testified.
The SCI sends many complaints back to the DOE, which has its own investigative arm, the Office of Special Investigations.
“Many requests that SCI receives do not rise to the level of necessitating an investigation, or are referred to an outside agency,” spokesman Jason Brooks said.
In 2019, the SCI investigated 695 of 9,638 complaints, or 7.2%. The rate dropped to a low of 3.5% in 2022, but has risen since.
Brooks defended the 4% investigation rate as “pretty much the norm” for inspectors general in NYC and elsewhere.
By comparison, the city Department of Investigation last year opened 868 probes of 14,816 complaints, or 5.8%, its annual report says. But the DOI had a much bigger FY 2024 budget, $56,184,808, and ten times more investigators, 347.
City Hall did not reply when asked why it has not boosted SCI’s budget or staffing.
