Local media operative Richard Gandon apparently knows a good story when he sees one. Gandon has booked Julie Wiener and Hella Winston for his Friday Ramapo Times/Rockland Star Community News Hour on WRCR AM1300. The writers are behind the months-long investigative three-part article now running in the Manhattan-based The Jewish Week that delves into possible chicanery involving E-rate funds for private schools — including Rockland County.
The authors allege that, under the 15-year old federal E-rate program, some Rockland schools have taken millions of dollar meant to subsidize schools’ and libraries’ telecommunications services, even though the schools don’t have computers or use technology.
The first Jewish Week article broke February 19 and describes how the all-boys Yeshiva Avir Yakov in the Hasidic village of New Square has taken nearly $3.3 million in E-rate funds while the school itself “is just one of many fervently Orthodox Jewish schools in New York State that, despite publicly eschewing Internet use and despite offering their students minimal, if any, access to computers, have spent large sums of E-Rate money.”
The E-rate articles are full of sensational information, that if accurate, could open a number of Rockland County schools to possible legal action.
The Jewish Week reported that while Jewish schools enrolled approximately 4 percent of the state’s K-12 students, the schools as a group were awarded 22 percent of the program’s allocations to NY schools and libraries. In 2011, 285 private and/or religious schools pulled in some $30 million from the program, or 20% of the total available NY E-rate funds.
Weiner’s and Winston’s second installment focused on how Haredi schools get so much E-rate money. The simple answer appeared to be that a small circle of interconnected companies work quietly behind the scenes with the various private schools to position the schools for paydays. Big Rockland E-rate providers in the Jewish community include Communications Data & Security, Inc. ($10.2 million) and Hashomer Alarm Systems in Rockland County ($8.9 million).
Friday’s WRCR lunch hour show will take callers from around the community.
Suffern-based Richard Gandon operates the Ramapo Times/Rockland Star online publications that cover news and views throughout the county. He is also one of the hosts of a new WRCR 1300AM community radio show.
Gandon’s show is part of the 16-week block of programming called the Raymour & Flanigan Community News Lunch Hour series — sponsored by Raymour & Flanigan Furniture. The program runs Mondays through Fridays and features a variety of up and coming local news aficionados, each hosting a different style show during the week that caters to his or her audience. In between its fast-expanding community fare, WRCR typically broadcasts adult contemporary music.
Friday’s Ramapo Times/Rockland Star Community News Hour on WRCR 1300AM is on air from 12 noon to 1 p.m.
Gandon’s show will also have a Small Business Segment featuring Andrew Dale of The Pin People that will review Search Engine Optimization for small businesses. The Pin People boasts a page one rank on Google and Andrew will explain how small businesses can achieve the same result locally.
Photos courtesy of RocklandStar.com and Michael Datikash from The Jewish Week. The photo shows Computer Corner in Williamsburg, one of the largest E-rate service providers to haredi schools.
