August 20, 2007 07:08 PM UTC

School Board Ethics Discussion Today

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado State School board has scheduled a last-minute Special Meeting for today for a “Code of Ethics Discussion.”

There’s no word on what prompted the sudden meeting, which follows a morning-long Executive Session, but it’s a good bet that board members will be talking about Bob Schaffer and his ties to donor David Brennan, who has given money to Schaffer’s Senate campaign while also receiving a favorable vote from him in relation to a charter school company called White Hat Management.

In related news, an Ohio newspaper called the Cleveland Scene has a story criticizing Schaffer in relation to White Hat, which seems to be a big issue in the Buckeye State.

Fortunately, owner David Brennan is hedging his bets by operating in multiple states. Even better, he’s finding that bribery outside Ohio is more competitively priced.

Take the Denver Public Schools. In February, leaders voted unanimously to yank White Hat’s charter, due to the small matter of sucking something fierce. So Brennan fixed the problem by Ohio rules: He bribed a guy.

Enter Bob Schaffer, former congressman, current member of the Colorado State Board of Education, and prospective U.S. Senate candidate. Schaffer’s board essentially overruled Denver, forcing the city to keep White Hat. In return, Schaffer received $4,000 in campaign contributions from Brennan, most of which arrived just a month after the vote.

ProgressNowAction, a Denver advocacy group, accused Brennan of buying Schaffer’s vote. “They’re the worst of what’s going on in the school-reform movement,” spokesman Michael Huttner says of White Hat. “It’s all purely driven by greed.”

Here in Ohio, of course, we simply call that government. More alarming was how little Schaffer charged.

Brennan has given $40,000 to Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor, and thousands more to her predecessor, Betty Montgomery. If you don’t want anyone looking at how you’re spending state money, these are the people to pay.

And just to make sure he never runs afoul of the law, Brennan has given $130,000 to Ohio Supreme Court justices.

If today’s “Code of Ethics Discussion” is indeed related to Schaffer, it could cause further damage to his image heading into next year’s Senate race.

UPDATE: the meeting just concluded, and Schaffer didn’t show up, even though we’re told all the major press had representatives and he was the #1 topic of dicussion. That’s a big mistake for Schaffer, who bumbled his response to this scandal by badmouthing the messengers and is now apparently hiding from the very people he should be courting to defuse the situation–the press. How much worse this will get is an open question, but Schaffer continues to do himself no favors.