It’s been nearly two years since a legislative audit criticized the Nevada Education Department for taking too long to revoke the teaching licenses of criminals.June 11, 2008 - The Las Vegas Sun is following up on a 2006 story on a legislative audit of state Department of Education problems in tracking teacher licenses. On Saturday the state Board of Education will consider revoking the licenses of three teachers convicted and sentenced for possession of child pornography. Two of them are already out of prison. There is still only one full-time staff member assigned to to monitor teachers facing potential discipline. And it still takes nearly two years to revoke a teachers license.
But officials are still taking up to 21 months to get the job done.
BACKGROUND Oct 10, 2006 - A 2006 audit by the Legislative Counsel Bureau uncovered a lack of policies and procedures to track criminal cases involving educators. State education officials said at that time that they often learned of teacher arrests from newspaper articles. One person was employed to monitor teachers licenses.
Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendent of public instruction on licensing problems.
Ten years ago, when Rheault first began working with the licensing department, about 20 FBI reports came back with "hits," which indicate either a criminal history or red flags that require more investigation by her. That number is now in the hundreds annually.In 2005, the state Board of Education revoked four teachers' licenses, three for sex-related offenses.
TT - You might notice that all three teachers whose licenses will be considered on Saturday were in possession of child pornography.
TT entry for Carl Leiner
TT entry for Mark Zana
