Fired Teacher Made Up Hunter Degree
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An educator who lied her way to the top level of the Department of Education with forged licenses never graduated from college and never earned the graduate degree in education that she claimed she had.
Joan Mahon-Powell claimed she graduated from Hunter College in 1978 before earning a masters degree in education from Brooklyn College.
Yesterday, a spokeswoman for Hunter, Deborah Sack, said Mahon-Powell attended the college from 1974 to 1978, taking courses in education and romance languages, but she didn’t graduate because she didn’t earn enough credits.
She took more classes between the fall of 1979 and the spring of 1981, as a part-time student in Hunter’s graduate program, but when the school found out she hadn’t graduated from college, she was barred from taking more graduate classes. In the fall of 1981, Mahon-Powell got her first job in the New York City public school system as a teacher.
In the fall of 1987, Mahon-Powell enrolled at Brooklyn College, where she claimed she got her master’s degree.
A spokeswoman for Brooklyn College, Pat Williard, said she applied through a United Federation of Teachers program that no longer exists, which helped teachers get the degrees they need to be certified.
Ms. Willard said Mahon-Powell took only two courses – both prerequisites that didn’t count toward the degree – before leaving the school altogether.
In 1988 Mahon-Powell was fired as a teacher because she was not certified. She worked as a substitute-teacher until 1992, when she was hired as an assistant principal, based on a forged supervisor’s license, and began her long run of promotions, ending with her final job as a local instructional superintendent in Brooklyn.
Yesterday, the day after Mahon-Powell pleaded guilty to reduced charges of presenting a false instrument, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said he was working with the education department’s legal division to try to keep the veteran educator from receiving more money out of the department, in the form of pension. He said it would be “deplorable” if she received pension money from the education department.
