CREATIVE FINANCING: The Morgan State University contracting irregularities, as described by legislative auditors, take creative financing to new heights. According to a report in The Sun, Morgan staff engineered the padding of one contract bid to pay cost overruns on several others in violation of state procurement rules. A university contracting official has resigned, but this isn't the first time Morgan has run afoul of state rules on financial matters. Faculty at Morgan's Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management should offer a brush-up course in business ethics to those overseeing school finance and construction projects.
LIFTING ALL BOATS: A new interim report commissioned by the Maryland State Department of Education confirms that a lot of the $3.3 billion in Thornton aid given out in the last five years has been used to hire new teachers, boost teacher salaries and lower class sizes. Improving teacher quality is an important way to address educational inequities, but achievement gaps persist and state school board members aren't satisfied - nor should they be. They want a more definitive accounting of money that's been used to help low-performing students. A rising tide may lift all boats, but boats starting from low tide may need more intensive help than others.
INDIAN INJUSTICE: Talk about justice delayed. How about 120 years? That's how long it's been since the federal government established the Indian Trust Fund to manage Native American lands and finances, and Uncle Sam has been bungling the job ever since. In 1999, a federal court ruled that the Interior Department had "unreasonably delayed" reforming its lax management of 56 million acres of Indian land and the royalties owed to individual Native Americans and tribes. Last week, almost 10 years after that finding, U.S. District Judge James Robertson concurred. Successive interior secretaries have vowed to clean up this mess, but Judge Robertson says the department responsible for this morass can't solve it. We agree; Congress should step in and force a settlement soon. Native Americans, still the nation's most impoverished minority group, cannot wait another 120 years - or even 120 months - to be made whole.