General Discussion

madfloridian

(88,117 posts) Tue Feb 11, 2014, 10:49 PM Feb 2014

FL's vouchers for disabled still a "boon for con artists". Not regulated.

These are corporate vouchers for students with physical or learning disabilities. As far as I can tell there is still no regulation or oversight.

From 2011

Schools for scandal. Florida's McKay vouchers are a boon for con artists. And no oversight.

A shocking report from Miami New Times examines a number of private schools that are living off taxpayer funds thanks to the John M. McKay Scholarships for Students With Disabilities Program. What the newspaper found isn’t pretty.

The program doles out lots of taxpayer money to religious and other private schools, but it doesn’t provide any significant oversight. As New Times put it, “There is no accreditation requirement for McKay schools. And without curriculum regulations, the DOE can’t yank back its money if students are discovered to be spending their days filling out workbooks, watching B-movies, or frolicking in the park. In one ‘business management’ class, students shook cans for coins on street corners.”

Other abuses the paper uncovered include:

* South Florida Preparatory Christian Academy in Oakland Park: The school’s 200 students moved from one dingy location to another before a fire marshal declared one building “unfit” for use. Some classes were held in public parks. Textbooks were scarce, and the music teacher noted that there were no instruments in the school.

* Hope Academy in Homestead: Three staff members were found to have criminal records, two for drug offenses. A woman is suing the school, saying officials did nothing after her disabled daughter was molested by a classmate.

There's an article this month from the Network for Public Education website:

If Your School Fails, Open Another One, Preferably in Florida

According to the story in the “Daytona Beach News-Journal”:

DAYTONA BEACH — A couple who suddenly shut down their Milwaukee private school last month after collecting $2.3 million in state vouchers over six years is trying to get a similar program off the ground here.

Taron and Rodney Monroe opened Lifeskills Academy II in August in a former Indigo Drive conference center that now houses three churches.

Seven children in prekindergarten through fourth grade are enrolled. They include the Monroes’ son and three students who qualify for taxpayer-funded vouchers under Florida’s McKay and corporate tax credit scholarship programs that pay for disabled and low-income children, respectively, to attend private schools. Lifeskills Academy II collected $5,147 in the first half of this school year from those programs.

“It’s a basic Christian school,” Rodney Monroe said. “We’re just a real small school. … We’re just trying to help children.”

There are even more instances of abuse and fraud.

School vouchers: A pathway toward fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars

Florida is not spared

The Florida Department of Education conducted an investigation of 38 schools suspected of defrauding the John M. McKay Scholarship for Students With Disabilities program. In 25 cases, allegations of fraud have been substantiated. These schools received McKay money totaling 49.3 million public dollars.

In 2011, journalist Gus Garcia-Roberts chronicled much of the fraudulent activity associated with the McKay scholarship program. His investigation revealed that at one institution, South Florida Prep, large numbers of students were crammed into rotating classroom locations in dingy strip malls, church foyers and public parks; open use of corporal punishment methods to tame students; 17-year-old drivers with learner's permits transporting other students to field trips, which resulted in an accident and deaths in one instance; and other sad stories of neglect and abuse.

How did this go on? In Florida, like in many other states, private schools go unregulated. The Department of Education never inquired about South Florida Prep's curriculum (there was none) and allowed McKay students to attend the school. DOE also gave them at least $236,000 from a state-run tax-credit scholarship for low-income kids.

According to the Palm Beach Post, officials at Faith Christian Academy defrauded the McKay scholarship program and the federal free lunch program by reporting more students than were actually attending the school. Betty Mitchell, head of the school, and five of her relatives and one other woman accepted more than $200,000 in state voucher money, textbook publishers and even landscapers -- all money intended for disabled children who didn't even attend the school.

Those arrested pocketed the money and used it to pay for real estate, personal automobiles, restaurant meals, airfare and cell phone bills, according to the State Attorney's Office investigation. Taxpayers also paid for rent, utilities, tickets to a comedy show, clothing, satellite television, and trips to beauty shops and nail salons for those arrested, investigators said.

Defunding public education with no oversight going on. A sure way to make public schools have diminished resources. When that happens the public schools are targeted for not performing.