Wow.

A higher-up in the New York City Department of Education is in hot water: He was arrested at a Wisconsin airport for allegedly trying to meet up with an underage boy for sex.

The New York Post reports:

Department of Education Deputy chief of staff David Hay was arrested at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee on Sunday on a charge of using a computer “to facilitate a child sex crime,” according to cops in Neenah, Wisconsin.

As for the intricacies, the charge being brought against the administrator is “use of a computer to facilitate a sex crime.”

Here’s how the state of Wisconsin defines it:

[Utilizing] a computerized communication system to communicate with an individual who the actor believes or has reason to believe has not attained the age of 16 years with intent to have sexual contact or sexual intercourse with the individual.

According to sources, an investigation of Hay lasted several months, led by the Neenah Police Department and in conjunction with the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department.

Not surprisingly, Hay’s been fired.

Via a statement to the press, Education Department spokeswoman Miranda Barbot commented:

“These allegations are incredibly disturbing and absolutely unacceptable. We took immediate action removing Mr. Hay from payroll and are terminating him. We referred this to the Special Commissioner of Investigation and we will fully comply with any investigation.”

In case you’re wondering, Hay’s position didn’t involved direct interaction with students.

But here’s something notable: A background check is performed on incoming administrators for the DOE.

So how’d his go?

We don’t know; it was never completed.

In 2016.

Yet, he was hired.

Not that the check would’ve raised flags, as noted by The New York Times.

Here’s Department of Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnett:

“It is not clear whether a completed background investigation would have revealed information relevant to the current charge against Mr. Hay. … The risks presented by this example are exactly why I took immediate steps to assess and then reorganize the Background Investigation Unit.”

Yeah — that might be a good idea.

Maybe “assess and reorganize” it so that y’all actually do it.

How many on staff might have stunning blights?

Well, possibly, a lot: As told to the Times, when Margaret took over in January of this year…get this:

“[She] inherited a massive backlog of 6,000 unfinished background checks.”

Some of those went back as far as 2015.

Way to go, government.

Excellent job.

Until his recent letting-go, Hay made $168,000 per year in his position with the Department.

How do you pay yourselves with tax money, operate free from private-sector pressures for success, and still end up doing such a bad job that you’re 6,000 background checks behind?

Perhaps I just answered my own question.

However it’s done, those on the Left side politics (and, admittedly — though to a lesser extent — some in the GOP) want more opportunity to work their bureaucratic magic.

I say, how about the Presto-Change-O of a smaller bureaucracy, with more private educational choice.

But maybe wave the wand once they finish those 6,000 background checks.

#Priorities

-ALEX

See 3 more pieces from me:

Great News for the Future of America: Joe Biden Promises to Eradicate Standardized Testing in Schools

A School in New York Tells a 14-Year-Old She Can’t Start a Christian Club – Don’t ‘Talk About Spreading the Hope of Jesus’

An Illinois School System Delivers a Monumental Ruling on Whether Boys Can Have Unrestricted Access to Girls’ Locker Rooms

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