ATLANTA – A former Atlanta school official will spend years behind bars for accepting bribes to steer a $780,000 technology contract to a computer vendor.

Jerome Oberlton, former chief information officer for Atlanta Public Schools, was sentenced this week to three years and five months in federal prison for accepting roughly $60,000 in kickbacks from a computer vendor to rig the bidding process for a school technology contract in favor of the Detroit-based company, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports.

“According to U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, the charges and other information presented in court: Oberlton, as APS’ CIO, had overall management responsibility for the APS information technology program. In January 2007, the school system issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a Data Warehousing project to centralize information relating to APS operations, including student information, so that it was maintained digitally in a secure, easily accessible manner,” according to the news site.

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“From the start of the project in January 2007, co-defendant Mahendra Patel and Oberlton conspired to influence the RFP process and, ultimately, caused the winning bidder to be selected in exchange for kickbacks for both.”

The vender paid a total of $60,000 to Oberlton over a six month period through two shell companies: Global Technology Partners and Global Technology Services. The CIO reportedly hid his involvement with GTP and GTS while he was with the school district. Patel worked as the facilitator of the deal between Oberlton and the computer company, and received his kickbacks as sales commissions for the phony companies, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports.

In addition to prison time, Oberlton was ordered to pay $735,130 in restitution, according to the Chronicle.

Oberlton was indicted last spring while working in a new position as chief of staff for the Dallas Independent School District. He resigned from that position in May 2013, and eventually pleaded guilty in January 2014.

Patel, Oberlton’s co-conspirator, pleaded guilty in August 2013.

The whole episode exemplifies the type of pay-to-play politics and backroom deals that govern many public schools across the country. Too many in the education world are focused solely on their self interests, and use the public school system as their personal cash cow. Teachers unions in many districts have perfected this to a science, though their deals are typically accomplished through strong-armed labor contract negotiations.

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That’s why it’s especially important for taxpayers, parents and honest school officials to be vigilant in rooting out those who put their own selfish desires before students, and to ensure that, like Oberlton, these rotten apples are held accountable for their despicable behavior.