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Florida Voucher Control Assailed in Audit
TALLAHASSEE - The state's chief financial officer issued a blistering report Thursday that criticized Gov. Jeb Bush's highly touted school voucher program for lacking basic accountability measures that might have prevented criminal activity.
The 24-page audit from CFO Tom Gallagher recommends a host of measures designed to better track how well students are educated and whether taxpayer-backed vouchers are being fraudulently dispensed to ``phantom students.''
In addition to rapping the state's Department of Education for lax oversight, the audit singled out the largest dispenser of tax-deductible vouchers, Miami-based FloridaChild, for irregularities in managing nearly $9 million.
Along with four other school-choice programs -- including Miami-based Heritage Schools of Florida -- FloridaChild faces a possible criminal investigation by the state's Office of Fiscal Integrity, Gallagher's office said. The CFO's office declined to discuss the nature of the investigations.
None of it might have been necessary had Bush's education secretary, Jim Horne, been minding the store, the report said.
''Overall, the Department of Education's failure to assign leadership to this program, combined with the absence of active participation in program management, has created a lack of accountability and has put the success of these vital school choice programs at risk,'' the report said.
Late Thursday afternoon, Horne issued a written statement that touted the success of the state's three voucher programs in helping poor, disabled and under-educated children to leave the public school system and get private hands-on schooling.
Horne said his office has already proposed revisions similar to those mentioned in the audit.
Bush spokeswoman Alia Faraj said the governor believes all of the proposed changes will make a ``good program even better.''
DENIES ALLEGATIONS
FloridaChild's scholarship funding director, Scott Bohnenkamp, denied any wrongdoing.
''We adhered scrupulously to all the requirements of the law,'' he said in an e-mail in which he pledged to work with Gallagher's Department of Financial Services, which issued the audit.
Currently, there are five other scholarship-funding organizations in Florida that are supposed to match poor kids with corporate donors as part of the $50 million Corporate Tax Credit program.
In return for contributing the money, the corporations get a dollar-for-dollar write-off for taxes that would otherwise fund the state budget for programs such as public schools.
There used to be seven organizations until The Palm Beach Post reported that one of them, Silver Archer, was founded by a bankrupt Ocala businessman who couldn't account for all the $400,000 he received to help poor kids. Silver Archer is now under criminal investigation. The paper also uncovered a Tampa school named in a terrorism indictment that received $350,000.
Like Silver Archer, FloridaChild had trouble showing regulators which kids got which money and for what amounts.
''An audit trail seems not to exist,'' the report said. It said the organization also employs the ''honor system'' by taking schools at their word that kids are actually showing up.
''Coupled with the online application process, this increases the risk of phantom students,'' the audit said.
BORROWED FROM BANK
The audit said the organization borrowed $5.2 million from a bank in anticipation of finding more students -- rather than going through the laborious process of matching each student with each corporate voucher one at a time. FloridaChild also accepted $3.55 million from other scholarship funding organizations. Auditors say it should only get its money directly from corporations.
Denise Lasher, a spokeswoman with the Florida Association of Scholarship Funding Organizations, said those transfers aren't prohibited by law.
Lasher said the organizations received clearance from the state's revenue department and the donor corporations before giving the money to FloridaChild, which is not a group member.
Lasher, however, said the association's five members follow appropriate record-keeping practices. She said the audit was helpful because it recommended that the Legislature allow the organizations more time to raise and bank money.
Lasher said the association also frowns on organizations that divert percentages of voucher money to cover overhead.
FloridaChild charged a 2 percent fee, according to the audit.
Another firm, Boynton Beach-based Castle Oak Academy, was accused by parents of taking up to half the voucher money for disabled students who were then home-schooled rather than sent to a private school.
Castle Oak is also facing a probe from Gallagher's office, as is Heritage Schools of Florida.
Gallagher's office is also examining the Education Department's decision to allow first-graders and kindergarteners access to vouchers for online schooling -- a decision it was not authorized by law to make.
NEW RULE
Two months ago, as reports of misspent money started grabbing headlines, Bush and Horne hosted a news conference and announced a rule that every private school receiving voucher students would have to file a five-page form swearing it complies with state rules.
Bush said at the time that news reports concerning alleged abuses in the voucher program were ``a little bit exaggerated.''
Bush cautioned against overregulating voucher-receiving organizations this week after a Senate voucher task force suggested a variety of revisions similar to those listed in Thursday's audit.
The governor said the proof of the vouchers' effectiveness is the fact that up to 25,000 children are receiving them, and parents are happy about it.
''This is a program based on a simple premise, which is that if a parent unilaterally believes that their child's individual education plan is not being fulfilled that they can move to another option,'' Bush said Tuesday.
``Parents will make this choice in a thoughtful way. They'll do what's right for their kids. And I think if you look at parent satisfaction, people are pleased.''
— Marc Caputo
School voucher control assailed in audit
Miami Herald
2003-12-12
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/education/7471114.htm
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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