Audit Reveals Flaw in H.S. Graduation Process

New York, NY —

A new report by city comptroller Bill Thompson's office suggests too many public high school students are graduating without proving they've met state requirements. The audit randomly sampled almost 200 graduates from the class of 2007. Thompson says 18 percent of them got class credits even when they'd taken the same course multiple times.

THOMPSON: You can take the same class two or three times and get credit for passing the same class. That shouldn't be. There's something wrong with that.

Transcripts for about 10 percent of the sampled graduates also didn't indicate whether graduation requirements had been met, though the department of education was eventually able to prove that most of them did.

Thompson is running for mayor and the Bloomberg campaign issued a blistering statement, accusing Thompson of misusing his office for political gain.