Another One Bites the Dust (Editorial)

What is it about the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System that seems to invite abuse?

The resignation recently of ATRS Director Paul Doane, a man we fully expected to trust and admire after he was hired last year, reminded us of the bad old days when Bill Shirron was treating the teacher pension fund as his own personal playground.

Doane, according to an audit, spent almost $35,000 of the pension fund’s money on travel expenses in a single year. He tended to visit Massachusetts and New Mexico, where he has homes.

ATRS has spent a lot of money on trips to New Mexico over the years.

Back in 2001, we learned that Shirron’s deputy, Angelo Coppola, used the ATRS expense account to make repeated trips to New Mexico, where he apparently spent most of his time on Boy Scout projects.

Now that we’re thinking about it, Shirron never was prosecuted despite falsifying minutes to make it appear that the trustees approved a land swap that they had never even heard about.

Back to the drawing board.