NYC CHANCELLOR USED TAXPAYER'S TIME TO RAISE MONEY FOR CONSERVATIVE EDUCATION LOBBY

NY Post - Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has used taxpayers' time to raise $1.5 million for a national nonprofit he co-founded last year -- with the blessing of the city's ethics board, The Post has learned. In November, Klein and other top Department of Education staffers were quietly granted permission by the city's Conflict of Interest Board to raise funds "using both city time and city resources" for the Education Equality Project.

Klein co-founded the group in June 2008 to push for national reforms aimed at closing the educational achievement gap between white and minority students. Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Ernie Logan, who is himself a signatory of the Education Equality Project's platform, called the fund-raising arrangement "the most absurd thing I've ever heard." But education officials argued the nonprofit's agenda advanced the city's educational efforts.