Allegations of document falsification and a general lack of accountability regarding the corporate tax credit school voucher plan call the Department of Education's credibility into question.
Published July 15, 2003
Over a two-year span, Florida government is indirectly handing $138-million to private contractors whose work is not scrutinized and whose identities may not even be known.
As incredible as that may sound, it actually gets worse. An administrator charged with overseeing the contracts wrote a memorandum on May 2, accusing someone in his office of altering the few records that do exist and his superiors of trying to hush things up.
So far, though, the state Department of Education has refused to be held accountable. Ask for answers, and here's what DOE spokeswoman France Marine offers: "The department has been and continues to be in full compliance with the statute."
Really? Here is how Bob Metty, director of DOE's scholarship programs, assesses the first year of the state's corporate tax credit school voucher plan: "There's $50-million out there, and I don't know where it's gone," Metty told the Palm Beach Post. "I can't name a student. I can't name a school. I can't name a student in a school." Metty, after raising his questions, was reassigned.
These are deeply disturbing accusations, and they come from a DOE administrator who had direct authority over the program. Metty says that on April 24, the day after the Post asked for copies of financial statements the law requires of the private schools receiving tax money, he walked into the choice office and noticed William Greiner with a pair of scissors. He says Greiner, who worked for Gov. Jeb Bush's 1994 campaign, was receiving faxes from a voucher organization and was cutting off the date stamped at the bottom. The faxes were financial statements.
"I have, on several occasions in my tenure as director of scholarship programs, requested all documentation regarding the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program," Metty wrote. "In every instance, Mr. Greiner has told me that he had "nothing to do' with the program. . . . This turned out not to be true. In fact, Mr. Greiner . . . has been approving schools to participate in the program surreptitiously, without my knowledge or approval, and apparently also without supporting documentation."
When Metty brought the matter to the attention of Alexandra Penn-Williams, DOE director of independent education, he says "she directed me to "be discreet' regarding the falsified public records by sending no more e-mail messages about it. . . . I wish no part of this conspiracy."
DOE took nearly a month before deciding to hand the matter over to its own inspector general, who has yet to issue a report. In the meantime, the department has issued a gag order to employees: "no one goes to or talks with staff or members at the Capitol, governor's office, press, etc., without prior approval." It yanked Metty from a Senate advisory task force reviewing a separate voucher program. And Greiner still has a DOE job.
The accusations of criminality, unfortunately, are only part of the larger question of credibility within DOE. The corporate tax voucher program is the state's newest, and was increased from $50-million in its first year to $88-million in its second without so much as a single financial audit or analysis of educational success. In fact, DOE can't readily identify which private schools receive the money, much less whether their teachers are qualified and the instructional methods sound.
What do lawmakers really know about this new program? Certainly, many children are being well-served in the schools they are attending. But do lawmakers know, for example, that the Islamic Academy of Florida, a school described in a federal indictment as a base of operations for a local terrorist cell, served 101 students on vouchers last year? Do they know that one of the voucher organizations aims to provide private education for children of state prisoners? Do they know that vouchers were paid to online schools, even before the Legislature agreed to set up its own pilot program to explore the viability? Do they know that the two major organizations dispensing the vouchers use vastly different requirements for a family to prove its continued financial eligibility? Do they know that, more than two years after they approved the program, not a single financial audit has been filed and DOE has yet to even issue audit standards?
The allegations of criminal activity are ripe for investigation, and should command the attention of Attorney General Charlie Crist, but the department's general lack of oversight is more ominous. These vouchers are intended to serve poor children who aren't satisfied with their public schools, and DOE seems to think that its only role is as an apologist for organizations that spend $138-million in public money.
Gov. Jeb Bush, when questioned by the Post, pointed instead to the number of children served and said: "I think it's a proven success." By which altered public document does he base his assessment?
