Patrick Madden of Boston's National Public Radio (NPR) station, WBUR, interviewed CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, for his piece on potential conflicts of interest and nepotism in Massachusetts special education schools.
"'It seems like an awfully big coincidence that the best person for each of these jobs just happened to be a family member of another person involved with the schools — it just seems statistically highly unlikely,' said Laurie Styron, who heads the nonprofit watchdog CharityWatch and reviewed WBUR's analysis."
"'People need to be able to trust that their tax dollars and other resources are being used by the nonprofit in the best possible way,' said Styron. 'And it makes it tougher to do that when people see a lot of nepotism.'"
"Laurie Styron of CharityWatch said these types of transactions can indicate that governing boards may not be providing adequate oversight."
"'If the organization had completely independently functioning boards of directors, would those boards have determined in all of these cases that family members of other board members or executives were the absolute best people for the job?' she asked."