Democracy Has Prevailed.

July 11, 2005

BREAKING NEWS: Hearing officer recommends dismissal of Santorum tuition dispute

From PennLive.com:

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A hearing officer has sided with U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in a dispute over whether a Pennsylvania school district can get back tax money it paid for Santorum's children to attend an Internet-based charter school while living in Virginia.

In an opinion released Monday, the officer recommended that the state education secretary dismiss the Penn Hills School District's request for a refund, because the district did not file its objections in a timely manner, (emphasis mine) Education Department spokesman Brian Christopher said.

[snip]

The state education secretary will make a final ruling on the hearing officer's recommendation by mid-August at the earliest, Christopher said.

The school district has 30 days to file an appeal.

As the article demonstrates, this case does not seem to have been decided on the merits of the charge but on the timeliness of the charge.

Santorum's reaction? As to be expected, he's claiming victory based on the merits:

Santorum on Monday called the allegations "baseless and politically motivated."

"Coincidentally, it wasn't until it was time for my re-election campaign did these questions about our children's education arise, and it was even less of a coincidence that these allegations originated from the Democrat chair of Penn Hills," he said.
He declined to answer any questions following his statement.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello. I just wanted to give a quick greeting and tell you I enjoyed reading your material.