The D.C. city government has rejected an appeal to release information on how the public schools are spending money from a fund created by private donations.
In an e-mail dated Tuesday, administrative hearings officer Len Becker said the schools have a right to deny a request, made by The Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act, to disclose expenditures from the schools’ Central Investment Fund.
“We recognize the important interests served by the media’s investigation and disclosure of potential wrongdoing on the part of government employees,” Becker wrote. “Nonetheless, the timing of such disclosure may have to yield in certain cases to the significant interests served by law enforcement.”
Becker referred to a Dec. 8 letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Roy L. Austin to D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi. Austin asked Gandhi not to release any information related to his investigations of the city’s charter schools.
Becker ordered the school system’s attorney, Karen Jones Herbert, to update The Examiner every 30 days on the investigation.
Anyone with any information on charter schools spending can call The Examiner at 202-459-4956.
