The Department of Ed's Big Check Oops

There's something so fitting that the Department of Education, which had been administering the citywide math tests for third and fifth graders this week, wrote a settlement check of $8,641,575 to an autistic child and his family, when the check should have been for $86,415.75. Damn those decimal points!! [The city is paying the family for not having the special education resources to educate the child.] The lawyer for the child's family sent the check back to the office of City Comptroller, William Thompson, since his computer-generated signature was on it, with a note saying, "This is not the first sizable overpayment we have returned to the city. I am very concerned that your office may be hemorrhaging checks like this one to persons who will not act as responsibly as we do." A spokesman for the Comptroller's office said, "Now you can understand how the Department of Education was $156 million over budget in the last fiscal year." A new check for the proper amount is being cut for the family today. No word on whether the Department of Education staff will be tested on their maths.