Brett Shipp and WFAA: Lazy, Irresponsible Reporting on DISD
Last night, Brett Shipp summoned every ounce of moral outrage he could to deliver his report about 166 profligate DISD employees traveling to Toronto to attend a convention for educators who teach reading. Just have a look at his lead:
“At the same time 169 jobs are being cut at DISD central administration, nearly that same number of employees decided to jet off to Canada for the International Reading Conference.“
He makes it sound like the job cuts were a bad thing. The implication is that the district couldn’t afford to keep those people employed but it could afford to send other teachers to Canada. Listen, the job cuts were intended to decrease layers of management within the bloated administration. They were a good thing. The move saved the district $9 million per year. (The DMN buried this story a couple weeks ago, deep in the Metro section.) Okay, then notice this: “[E]mployees decided to jet off to Canada …” “Jet off”? Shipp expects them to fly from Dallas to Toronto on a prop plane? In a dirigible? Message to Shipp and Channel 8: in the year 2007, air travel via jet plane is commonplace.
That’s just the beginning. Shipp’s report made several more observations about the trip that demonstrate bias, a lack of critical thinking, or both.
Look through his entire report. At the end, I see two bills that look like they spent too much. The big one was the $418 bill by two folks. Crab! Lobster! As if these foodstuffs are eaten only by kings. That bill, though, is carefully made to sound bigger than it is, as Shipp says they “filled their plates over two nights.” It’s actually more than $200 a night, for which teachers should be told, “Hey, check yourself. Next time you spend that much, it’s coming out of your pocket.” Instead, Shipp treats the matter as though it were a high crime. Which it is not. It’s not a big deal. We’re talking small potatoes here. Or small crabs and lobsters.
Shipp says the TOTAL cost to DISD for 166 people taking the trip was $300,000 (though, oddly, the story in the DMN says it was only $265,000). That means that the average cost for a five-day trip (the conference ran Sunday to Thursday) was $1,807 per teacher/principal. Seriously? That’s awful? But it gets worse/better/less a big deal. Because that total includes, as Shipp puts it, $50,000 in higher airfares because of late bookings (if average cost was $400 for round trip, assuming that every late fee was $1,400, which he clearly wants us to do when he says “as much as $1,400″). Okay, so maybe they should have gotten their act together and booked earlier. Okay, fine. Beancounter Shipp wants to harangue them for that. But take OUT the $50K in average higher airfare for late booking, and you’re talking about $1,500 per person spent for the entire five-day trip, which counts airfare, food, transportation, and lodging. So $300 a day. This is a problem? This is worth a “special investigation”?
Shipp saves his kicker for the end. This is the most insane part. He says the most “exotic” stop was the Sultan’s Tent, which features belly dancing. Cut to grainy images of belly dancers, with folding money tucked into their waistbands. Shipp intones, “What taxpayer wouldn’t surrender all fiscal sensibilities at the drop of a veil … ?” The clear implication is that this is tantamount to going to a strip club. Please do me a favor and go to the restaurant’s website. It seems not only classy but cool. Also, it seems LIKE A HELLUVA DEAL! Because the four-course menu is only $39.95, prix fixe. Shipp also calls it a “Zagat-rated restaurant,” as if there could be nothing more opulent. Everyone is in Zagat. It’s lowest-common denominator reviewing by “the readers.” It’s like calling a restaurant “Internet-rated.”
There’s more. I could go on. Shipp gets all worked up over some of the hotel rooms costing $340 per night. Right. That’s crazy. And the kids today are spending $3 on coffee. Back in the old days, a cup of coffee was 25 cents! What’s going on in this world?! Please.
Now. Here’s the thing. I’ll stop here for now. After you’ve watched Shipp’s report, go read the Morning News story. It is far more balanced. It puts the convention in context, lets you know how valuable the trip was. It explains that the “tax money” spent on the trip actually came from a federal grant (as opposed to your local property taxes, which is what Shipp wants you to believe). And the DMN article wraps it up this way:
“DISD used federal guidelines to determine its daily meal allowance for attendees. Last spring, that federal rate was $124 a day. DISD capped it at $109. So even a $65 lobster was allowable because the teacher did not exceed the $109 daily meal limit. Five teachers did exceed their meal allowances.”
Did you catch that? Five teachers exceeded their meal allowances. Five teachers! That’s what we’re talking about here. Some sloppy travel planning and five teachers spending too much on food.
Brett Shipp, you should be ashamed of yourself. Remember when you broke the DPD fake drugs scandal? I do. And back then, I thought you were a hell of a reporter.
–Eric Celeste contributed to this post
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I have to agree with you. Lately I have seen ‘exposes’ of the DISD that were less than whole, and your indictment here is a prime example. I write for the DMN Belo unbrella and am happy that the News is doing a better (aka fairer) job than Shipp. I know many teachers at DISD who are doing saints work, most recently watching the musicians of Otis Gray @Booker T. Washington. Which was a stunning revelation to me.
Don’t even get me started on how much out of pocket these people are expected to spend on supplies, and try teaching when the entire mandate is the Taks test, and the controversial No Child, etc., etc. This piling on the DISD with ‘gotcha’ cheap shots has got to stop. Thank YOU for leading the **** way.
Sincerely, Rawlins Gilliland
I have mixed emotions. First, my wife is a teacher (public school, not disd), spends at least a thousand dollars a year of our money on her class. I’m all for teachers and principals going to conferences. It’s a good use of taxpayer money. I wonder about whether the International Reading Conference isn’t a boondoggle and there are better/closer/cheaper alternatives. I’m not happy about the last minute travel and last minute booking. That’s much more worrisome than the meals. It reflects some really sloppy planning, which is consistent with my experiences with DISD. I’m quite happy with the cuts in Admin, it’s exactly where cuts should be taking place.
Where have you two been? Since the fake drug scandal we have also gotten in depth investigative pieces from Brett Shipp on a scandal involving Jack and the Beanstalk (Dec ‘05) and of course Byron Harris’ chilling expose on the scandalous D’s Top Doc’s issue and Tim Rogers involvement.
Shipp’s report was way over the top, but let’s put this in perspective shall we?
According to the DMN, Umphrey Lee sent 9 people to the conference in Toronto. dallasisd.org says Umphrey Lee has 34 teachers. A quarter of the school’s staff needed to go to a reading conference? Take a look at Sam Houston which sent 8 people. Sam Houston has 27 teachers, meaning a 1/3rd of the staff went to a reading conference. Seems like a bit much. What, no one at either of these schools can take notes and give them to a friend who didn’t go? You (and the DMN) didn’t mention Shipp’s point about the day trip to Niagara Falls on the tax payers’ dime. How did that help educate our children to read?
As for the meal allowance; all I can say is wow. I wish my employer would allow me to spend $100/day on food while on a business trip. Outside of government (and apparently magazine publishing) meal allowances are generally a lot lower. My point is this: would the same people who spent $200/night on Lobster and the like have spent the same amount of their own money on the same meals if they were in Dallas? I doubt it. Getting to spend someone else’s money should not be a license to live the high life.
It doesn’t matter if it’s federal, state or local money. There’s a finite amount of it; when it runs out there’s no more. This seems a lot like a classic DISD move: better spend that grant money before the end of the year or it will get taken away; valid business case be damned (see also: DISD P-Card scandal with the odd amount of AV and computer equipment purchased in May and June — all outside normal purchasing procedures).
Oh, and Sultan’s Tent actually does sound like a cool place.
The “late” premium for airline tickets may be due to some DISD policy of buying only refundable tickets which typically are more expensive. $100+ a day per diem would be sweet, even with 1/1 dollar ratio now in Canada, plus they may not need receipts for that so you can pocket the unused portion untaxed (also sweet). GSA per diem for Dallas is $59. http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/home.do?tabId=0
I was going to reply, but jamesn said it better than I could have.
I’m usually in lockstep with Tim, but this case seems like an overreaction to Shipp’s over the top report.
The DMN story might be more “balanced” than Mr. Shipp’s reporting, but I read it this morning and thought how disgusted he must have been when he couldn’t find a single strip club receipt. Now THAT would have been in the lede. So he fell back on the belly dancer, so to speak. (It wasn’t about the belly dancing, it wasn’t about the belly dancing.) I questioned why the airline tickets had to be bought so late, but Don may have answered that for us.
And I questioned why the principal made the trip. He explained nicely why he went, but I’m still uneasy about an administrator making the trip when he sent his own teachers to get the latest info on the subject.
Still, I felt for Mr. Shipley: Not a strip club receipt in the entire stack, and you know SOMEONE spent hours looking for one, right down to checking out the websites of the eateries. It must be tough being a hard-hitting journalist.
Stupid reasoning, First time DISD seems to be ok. there is a reason to spend money and make connection. Folks, remember, we want Canadian school teachers to spend dollars in Dallas too. Ideas are trade. Tax dollars are returned. Dont we promote convention biz here, dont we need to have an exchange of ideas, dont our tax dollars return to us by making connection with others?
I saw this and couldn’t belive this was a lead off sory. Everyone else has said it best here. Bottome line is that DISD teacher are overworked and underpayed. I could care less if they treat themsselves to a fancy dinner or 2 on my tax money. They earn it.
I don’t think that Shipp has gone downhill since the fake drug story. It appears that he has always had a high sleaze factor (I used to watch him when he was in Tulsa) and temporarily set his standards higher during the fake drug investigation. I quit watching News 8 when Shipp became obsessed last year with strip clubs. Thanks but no thanks.
Did you see the DMN article about the Perry’s rental? The thought from his office seems to be that as the leader of the second largest state in the country, he should have the second most expensive living tab in the country. Let’s pay our teachers the second best pay in the country. Seems fair to me.
I have to agree that Shipp’s story was inflated and unbalanced, but why are you acting surprised? Television news running sensational stories? That’s just ludicrous.
Anybody but me notice that throughout this thread, no one is essentially defending Shipp or piling on DISD (which is usually as easy as a Briney Spears panty joke).
I had a nightmare and in it erstwhile gone-but-not-forgotten Channel 11 ‘praise God and pass the sleeze’ vampire asteroid Regent Ducas was being channeled at WFAA News. Watching the re-broadcast of this ‘breaking story ‘exclusive’ (always ‘exclusive’!) I say be prepared to grab the garlic and crucifix, a stake and a hammer.
As a schoolteacher, otherwise known as one of the fellow underpaid and overworked, I still have to take issue with this whole debachle. The point is that the grant money had to be spent, right? There are reading conferences going on everywhere! Why did Dallas not take the grant money and send four times as many people to a similar conference?
Or if this conference was such a unique and fabulous opportunity for learning, why did so many people from just a couple of campuses go? Why not pick one or two from a couple dozen campuses and then have a staff development at each one using the materials that the we**ite so generously offers. (http://www.reading.org/association/meetings/annual.html) If the outcome was REALLY to help as many students as possible, then send a greater assortment of people from different schools.
As I sit here dining on $5 Chinese takeout, I think to myself, “Maybe I’m just jealous. I mean, when’s the last time I had a lo**ter dinner?” But then again, I have to call ** on Dallas. I’d rather eat my cold Jason’s Deli at my next staff development, than know I work for a district that does some of the things Dallas does. There are definitely some teachers there that lack integrity.
And since when are “L*O*B*S*T*E*R” and “B*S*” bad words? I.J.S.
We’re trying out a new filter and it’s getting a little too excited. Sorry for the “B*S*”
-SE @ D
I was at two schools yesterday and was bombarded by livid staff about Shipp’s report and everything about DMN.
Overall they’re fed up with DMN and were talking about massively yanking subscriptions.
They rehashed the P card investigation and how difficult it is to now get classroom materials they need because a few people abused the system.
They’re tired of defending the district to friends and neighbors who misinterpret media reporting.
Shipp’s report was degrading to the teaching profession: “Bankers can eat out, but teachers and principals can’t?” “They want us to be trained but not reimbursed for it?” “Principals are instructional leaders and need training too.”
Most of the comments were stories about personal expenditures for the classroom or while traveling that exceeded allowances. “If teaching is an honorable profession, treat us like professionals.”
Impressive software to have bleeped out m*a*s*s*ively and cl*a*s*s*room. I’ll be more careful in the future. It’s still extremely more sophisticated than DMN’s site.
Should be all good now. Let the BS fly.
-SE @ D
First off thanks to L for sending me this info…i;m disabled and don’t get to the schools like i used to. I am surprised that ANYONE would be upset that our teachers are going to conferences on reading. As a parent of TWO children with learning differences READING is the MOST important thing our children can learn. AS an adult who is dyslexic I wish my teachers back 40+ years ago had a reading conference to gone to.
It is time that our news media both in print and vocal show the GREAT things that our schools do and the AWESOME students who come from DISD Schools. I am sick and tired of always reading half truths and stories. IF you always look for bad you will find the bad ,…..even if it is not there.
AS FOR THE NOTE ABOUT OUR GOVERNORS NEW DIGGS… I say 10K a month is a HUGE overage for Rent… let him stay in an apt like a lot of us do.
I am a mother of private school children and very happy Dallas ISD children. As a parent and a taxpayer I am only sorry that more teachers did not go to Canada and that the teachers and staff did not order great desserts. They deserve it and so much more.
[...] The Morning News and its Belo cousin continue to undermine the most important institution in Dallas. Its not a perfect institution by any means. Media watchdogs will continue to play an important role in its reform. But this sort of bogus “gotcha” reporting gets us nowhere. Leave a Reply [...]
Too bad the country doesn’t have more really pathetic, slipshod journalists like Brett Shipp at WFAA!!
Quoting the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children:
In a strong year for local television news, Dallas` WFAA-TV was especially potent, earning a Peabody for four reports that underscored its commitment to investigative work: Money for Nothing revealed slipshod lending practices by the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The Buried and the Dead raised questions about the state of Texas` oversight on the gas pipeline industry. Television Justice looked into a dubiously cozy relationship between a “To Catch a Predator” unit of NBC Dateline and the police in Murphy, Texas. Kinder Prison explored a Homeland Security prison holding immigrant families near Austin, Texas.