School cheating in Atlanta

Savannah (Ga.) Morning News: Let the test-cheating scandal that makes Atlanta’s public school system look like a rotten apple be a lesson to public school officials in the Savannah area: If the test scores look too good to be true, they probably are.

The investigative report into Georgia’s largest public school system, which Gov. Nathan Deal released, paints a picture of an out-of-control school district where student performance mattered little.

Instead, it was all about protecting jobs, salaries and benefits at any cost.

But this alleged corruption wasn’t just at the superintendent’s level. It extended from the top down, including principals and teachers.

Whether criminal charges are filed will be up to individual district attorneys in the metro Atlanta counties affected. At the very least, cheaters must never work in an educational setting again.

The sharp rise in test scores at previously failing Atlanta schools was just short of miraculous. Unfortunately, elected school board members didn’t look beyond the numbers to see whether the progress was the result of hard work and achievement or an eraser. That’s their fault.