"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." - Robert A. Heinlein

Monday, December 20, 2010

A Report on the Whereabouts of One Raj K. Chopra

I received a piece of information last week that caused me to laugh out loud – then made me want to throw up a little bit. It’s regarding the former superintendent at Southwestern College, Raj K. Chopra.


What I was told – and it was from an unimpeachable source – is that Raj Chopra has apparently decided to stick around California a while.

Why is this both funny and disgusting? Because the smart money would have had Chopra hightailing it India after his resignation from SWC, or attempting to find new work somewhere on the East Coast, as far from California, Arizona, and Kansas as he could get.

But no. Chopra is apparently spending some quality time in East County (that’s the sparsely-populated central/eastern San Diego County for you non-locals) trying to convince someone to hire him as a school superintendent.

That was the laughy part. Chopra needed to retreat to conservative East County to try to find someone to help him grab a short-term or interim position. When his best possible chance at a career – and coincidentally, the most dignified thing he could do, is to go elsewhere and seek a position, he’s wandering So Cal, hat in hand, looking for an eighteen-month long bit of work.

Because, you see, eighteen months as a superintendent in California is all he needs to become vested in the state’s pension system. If he acquires even an interim position, all he has to do is rest his butt in a chair for eighteen months, say nothing, do nothing, and the people of California will pay for his quite-large pension.

Which he will have earned by turning Southwestern College into an oppressive, frightened shell of itself.

That’s the whole throwy-uppy thing.

It’s imperative that Chopra not be allowed this opportunity. If it’s the work he wants, let him take his carcass somewhere else and find it. Do not let this man game the system. Do not let him earn his pension on the backs of those students who were unceremoniously abandoned or the faculty and staff who were laid off and let go – all do to his butcher’s work to the budget.

He doesn’t want the work; he wants that pension.

Chopra’s biggest supporter, the San Diego Union-Tribune, has long complained about the unions and their “abuses” of the state pension system. But it’s not a union member attempting to abuse the system now; it’s management. Kind of makes you wonder if this makes the U-T reconsider their position on Chopra, or if they’ll unfurl their hypocrisy flag and keep supporting him.

Consider this your Distant Early Warning. Raj Chopra is trying to slip back into the system, all to collect that unearned pension. Don’t let it happen. He’s already left one school in tatters and a nationwide laughingstock.

Don’t let it happen to your school.

10 comments:

  1. Thank you for posting this warning. The more people who see this and pass it on, the safer California and the State Teacher's Retirement System (STRS) will be. It's important for readers to send this link out to educators in the state.

    Again, my thanks.

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    1. http://articles.philly.com/2000-05-04/news/25615942_1_chopra-school-district-leader-school-board
      "School District Leader Resigns After 20 Months, Raj K. Chopra Stepped Down From Marple Newtown's Superintendent Post.
      By Chani Katzen, INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
      Posted: May 04, 2000

      NEWTOWN SQUARE — Marple Newtown School District Superintendent Raj K. Chopra, who was wooed to one of the state's highest-paying superintendent's jobs 20 months ago, announced his resignation yesterday.

      Chopra, 63, became superintendent in October 1998 after signing a five-year contract to run the 3,522-student district.

      He will step down June 30, the day that contracts covering the district's teachers and support staff expire. Union officials worried that new contracts would not be in place then.

      Chopra said he was retiring from four decades in public education to manage a radiology company in Phoenix, Ariz., owned by his son.

      "All my life, I've been called by the school bells, and so I'm going to miss that very much," Chopra said in his office at the school administration building. "But I feel that when I look back, I'll have a real sense of fulfillment."

      School board member Mike Young, a former board president, speculated yesterday that Chopra might have quit because six new board members elected last November had ignored him during discussions of important issues...."

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    2. http://www.theswcsun.com/former-superintendent-raj-chopra-dies/

      "...Former Southwestern College Superintendent Raj Kumar Chopra died November 2 in Houston, Texas. He was 78.

      Friends and family were invited to “join in the celebration of the joy he brought to the world” on November 7 and asked to make contributions to the Dr. Raj Chopra Scholarship fund at Bowling Green State University, Ohio...."

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  2. I'm always happy to shine a light on the truth about Raj, Alioto, Yoli, and the rest.

    But it would sure be nice if this was *over*.

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  3. It is very surprising that he has not fled the country by now. If Zasueta faced 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine for improperly using $5,800 of the taxpayers' money to buy a television ad for Prop. AA, imagine what Chopra and Alioto face when they are indicted for the tens of thousands (maybe even hundreds of thousands)they improperly allocated for the re-election of Salcido and Valladolid. Chopra could be put away for the rest of his life and Alioto until he is in his mid seventies.

    Please keep up your great work, Nick. This is far from over. Alioto, Kerns and Meadows are still around, and the college is one holy mess.

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  4. Well, as I hinted in my previous post, Alioto is the little fish in all this. I'd much rather see him own up to what he knows and spend a little quality confession time with the DA. I suspect he's got enough to put away Yoli and John, Raj, and Dan Hom.

    Now if Alioto would only realize how much people would rather see *them* taken down than him, he'd do the right thing - and we'd get to see the truly responsible ones do some jail time.

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  5. Speaking of SWC pensions, I ran into John Wilson a few months back -- he's the facilities manager who's girlfriend was a board member voting on his pay increases and benefits. He mentioned how much he loved working at the college and how, even after retiring last year he was so attached to the school that he agreed to come back as a "consultant" and continue working to see all of the projects he was involved with through to completion. Sounds altruistic, until he said "it's not about the money, I don't need the money, my pension pays me 100% of my salary...". Pause for a second: his pension is 100% of his salary? And then they hired him BACK to continue working and paid him MORE money on top of that pension while they hired someone else to do his other job?? REALLY?!? Just more scandal-wood for the SWC-fire....

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  6. Wow. Now see... here I was thinking it would be nice if we had a majority of the GB that would think it was noble and honest to investigate things like that... :-)

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  7. And Dr. Chopra is of the same race as the great Gandhi? Gandhi's burnt ashes must have landed on a piece of shit to produce this guy. It makes you think that maybe Great Brittan should not have given India it's independence in 1947. I can't wait to hear this PhD. over the phone next time I call a "help desk" for the "toilet plunger" I just bought.

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  8. I used to draw devil horns on him as a kid. πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

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