NO ONE CAN SUCCEED LIKE DOCTOR ROBERTS: The One About the Illegal Immigrant School Superintendent.
What can you do except tip your cap to a truly exceptional figure? In my earliest days here, I wrote an ode to George Santos (then a Republican representative from New York, presently a jailbird) titled “In Praise of Hilarious Frauds.” How can you ask me to feel any differently about a true gold-star achiever such as Roberts? Any old fool can overstay a student visa and live a life in the shadows nowadays, but it takes real shamelessness and a special kind of entrepreneurial grift to do that while asking for civic responsibility over the education of 30,000 public-school students.
I haven’t even mentioned the final, delightful twist in this whole story: As it turns out, Dr. Roberts, Des Moines’s top educator, isn’t even a doctor. He fabricated more than just his immigration status; he fabricated his educational qualifications as well. (He pretended to have a Ph.D. from Morgan State University, when in fact he has nothing at all. But apparently he is a very sharp dresser.)
My friend Iowahawk announced on Twitter/X this morning that “Doctor” Ian Roberts is “the greatest charming grifter to fleece dimwitted gullible Iowans since Professor Harold Hill.” I have to nod in vigorous approval at the sheer chutzpah required for an illegal alien to take the job of head of a red state capital’s public school system — proof that immigrants do the sorts of jobs that Americans just won’t do. Hey, Ian, don’t be blue: You can always try getting a job here in Chicago if you manage to slip away from ICE once again — the CTU will hire anybody.
Meanwhile, Power Line’s Bill Glahn spots “New woes for Iowa Man:”
From CBS-8 (Des Moines),
Federal authorities file gun charge against former Des Moines school superintendent Ian Roberts.
Details,
According to a news release from the Department of Justice, Roberts, 54, made an initial appearance Thursday before a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
That news release can be read here. The complaint can be read here. The complaint (pp. 3-4) documents Roberts’ immigration history. Roberts’ hold a valid and current Guyana passport (p. 7, paragraph 21). Several additional firearms were found in a search of Roberts’ Des Moines home.
And: “Roberts also wrote on his LinkedIn profile that he attended MIT’s Sloan School of Management, one of the most prestigious business schools in the country. Des Moines school officials echoed that claim in a November 2024 blog post about the superintendent. But an MIT spokesperson said the school has no record of Roberts attending.”
As Glahn wrote in an earlier post about Roberts, “‘MIT’? If you are just going to make up fake academic credentials, go big or go home.”
(Classical reference in headline.)