Hey, New York: You Made a $15 Million Mistake!

Feb 9, 2007 at 3:39 pm

[
          {
            "name": "GPT - Leaderboard - Inline - Content",
            "component": "41932919",
            "insertPoint": "5th",
            "startingPoint": "3",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "3",
            "maxInsertions": 100
          }
          
        ]

www.nsf.gov

STL to NYC: You wasted more money than we did!

Some officials from the St. Louis Public Schools took a break from trying to save (or annihilate, depending on whom you talk to) the Board of Education governance system this week in order to spill ink all over several New York newspapers.

Peter Downs and Bill Purdy (and to a lesser extent, Veronica O'Brien) came out swinging at Alvarez & Marsal in stories published in the Times, Daily News and Post, blaming the New York-based consulting firm for a colossal school-bus route reconfiguration snafu in New York City last week.

The St. Louis school board shelled out $5 million for a one-year contract with the firm in 2003 -- a lot of money, to be sure, but not as much as the $15.8 million the New York City Department of Education -- which answers to Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- agreed to last year.

-Kristen Hinman