CHICAGO – A former board member for the North Chicago school district was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in prison for her role in steering $21 million in busing contracts to favored companies in return for an estimated $566,000 in kickbacks.

Prosecutors say Gloria Harper operated the kickback scheme with the district’s former transportation director, Alice Sherrod, from 2001 to 2010, ChicagoTribune.com reports.

At one point, Harper and Sherrod were getting $20,000 a month in kickbacks from a busing company co-owned by Tommie Boddie. In return, the pair cajoled the school district into increasing “the number of students transported by his company,” reports ChicagoTribune.com.

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Harper upped the ante a couple years later by advising Boddie and Derrick Eubanks to start a new busing company, Safety First Transportation Inc. Harper promised to use her considerable sway with fellow school board members to steer bussing contracts to Safety First Transportation if Boddie and Eubanks agreed to split the profits with her and Sherrod.

Harper’s three co-conspirators – Sherrod, Boddie and Eubanks – “have all pleaded guilty and await sentencing,” the news site notes.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman sentenced Harper to serve 10 years in prison for her crimes – in addition to the 2 ½-year sentence she’s already serving for a previous fraud conviction.

Judge Coleman noted that the real victims of the crimes committed by Harper and company were the thousands of students who attended the North Chicago school district that’s noted for its financial struggles.

That makes sense: If a busing company can afford to pay $20,000 a month in kickbacks, it’s obviously overcharging the district for its services. As a result of that, school leaders were likely left with less money overall to fund various programs and services for students.

This story has implications beyond North Chicago schools.

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Americans are routinely told by their teachers union and political leaders that their local school system is “underfunded.” But the average taxpayer would be stunned if he or she understood the amount of waste, mismanagement – and sometimes fraud – that occurs in the typical school district.

The major reason public schools are struggling to pay their bills is because the adult leaders and employees have put their financial interests ahead of the students’ needs.

Americans have been making huge “investments” in public education for decades. They don’t need to spend more on schools. They simply need to demand accountability for how their money is being spent.