An interesting day for our education system. First:

Last month, Penn State University officials learned something about professor Paul Krueger that wasn't on his resume he is on parole for a triple murder committed in Texas nearly 40 years ago.

The university knew nothing about Krueger's conviction until late last month, when the Pennsylvania Bureau of Probation and Parole contacted the university, spokesman Bill Mahon said Friday.

''We're in shock to find out some of the details, and we're still looking into it,'' Mahon said. ''We've never had a situation like this before.''

Mahon said the university doesn't require prospective faculty members to report their criminal backgrounds.

But it may soon be a moot point. A spokesman for National University in California confirmed that Krueger had accepted a teaching job there, and Texas parole officials said they already were working on that move.

I have no problem with someone who served their time becoming a productive citizen again. I do have a problem with a man who killed three fathers for no reason being paroled less than twenty years after receiving a life sentence.

Next:

The city is opening a full-fledged high school for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students - the first of its kind in the nation, The Post has learned.
Operating for two decades as a small alternative program with just two classrooms, the new Harvey Milk HS officially opens as a stand-alone public school with 100 students in September.

The school, located at 2 Astor Place, is undergoing a $3.2 million in city-funded renovations approved by the old Board of Education in June of last year. It will eventually take in 170 students by September 2004, more than tripling last year's enrollment.

Isn't this segregation? What's next, all black or hispanic schools? I'm not a big slippery-slope kinda guy but jeez, this is ridiculous and on the tax-payers dime.

And my personal favorite:
A group of parents is upset over a possible scheduling move that could result in a white teacher leading classes in black history.

The parents have raised a touchy racial issue that has bedeviled educators for years: Should only black teachers teach black history?

Using a white teacher at Oberlin High School would send the wrong message to black students, said A.G. Miller, an associate professor of American and African religious history at Oberlin College.

"The message is that we are not concerned about the importance of your historical background ... that that is less important than a schedule conflict," said Miller, whose three children graduated from Oberlin High School...

Michael Williams, interim director of Cleveland State University's black studies program, said schools should choose a black teacher if that person is most qualified, not just because the teacher happens to be black.

If two teachers are equally qualified, Williams gives the edge to the black teacher.

"That person still has the advantage of the culture," said Williams, who is black. "They understand the nuances of the culture."

Phyllis Yarber Hogan, a member of the Oberlin Black Alliance for Progress, said a white teacher wouldn't be well-suited to teaching students about subjects like slavery.

"When you talk about slavery, students need to understand it is not our fault," she said. "Our ancestors did nothing wrong to be enslaved.

"How do you work through that when the person teaching it is the same type of person who did the enslaving?"

What the hell does that mean? The "same type of person", is that code for white? I am white and sure wouldn't think of enslaving anyone. I think by saying type she really means that all whites (irish, italian, german, polish, and lithuanian) would be slave-holders of blacks given the opportunity.