Increased voucher scrutiny fizzes out

The Legislature still doesn't require additional regulations of school voucher programs after cases of scandal.

By CARRIE JOHNSON and JONI JAMES
Published May 9, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Less than a year after seven private school employees were charged with defrauding the state of tens of thousands of dollars, state lawmakers failed to approve any additional regulation of the state's school voucher programs.

It marks the second time in two years, despite an assortment of scandal, that the Republican-led Legislature has failed to demand that Gov. Jeb Bush's Department of Education tighten scrutiny of the people who qualify to run voucher programs.

The lack of legislative action prompted Bush to pledge better oversight through executive orders. But he made the same promise last year and little, if any, action was taken.

Critics have long argued the state needs to keep a closer eye on the public funds flowing to private schools and to ensure children receive a quality education.

"No one can deny the fact that this is necessary," said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, whose voucher accountability bill failed. "We need to know whether or not those facilities out there exist, whether the kids we're paying for are actually going to school and whether they're learning anything."

King's bill would have barred schools that accept vouchers from discriminating on the basis of religion, required student progress to be measured using one of four standardized tests and subjected voucher schools to unscheduled visits by an auditor.

But chances of success diminished considerably on the last day of the 2005 session when House members tacked on 281 pages of amendments. The Senate didn't take up the bill again.

"The House didn't want it," King said. "It was fairly obvious from the very beginning."

One of the major sticking points: background checks. Senators felt strongly teachers should be subjected to rigorous background checks, including a nationwide criminal history search. House members argued the checks would be too expensive and pushed for a more limited search, scanning only Florida records for criminal offenses.

"Who would be against requiring teachers to be fingerprinted?" asked Sen. Walter Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale. "We have a duty to protect our children."

Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said private schools aren't required to accept voucher students. Background checks are a reasonable trade-off for taxpayer money, he said.

"You want to be a private school manager? Too bad, you have to play by a set of very reasonable rules," Klein said.

Since Bush took office in 1999, Florida has launched three voucher programs serving roughly 25,000 former public school students. The Opportunity Scholarship is for students attending poor-performing public schools, the McKay Scholarship for disabled students and the Corporate Income Tax voucher for poor students.

The state Supreme Court is expected to decide this spring whether vouchers for religious schools are constitutional.

Bush had hoped to dramatically expand the state's voucher program this year. The Reading Compact Scholarship would have given a taxpayer-funded voucher to any student who scores at the lowest level on the reading portion of the FCAT for three consecutive years.

The Senate killed the program, saying it didn't want to expand vouchers before the Supreme Court rules.

King said the demand for more accountability will continue to grow as more scandals erupt. In June, Polk County officials arrested seven employees of Faith Christian Academy in Bartow alleging they had filed more than $53,000 in fraudulent claims under the McKay Scholarship.

The Ledger in Lakeland reported that the school's principal, Betty May Jives Mitchell, had once been tried on charges that she and an accomplice, Louise Henry, used arsenic to murder Mitchell's ex-husband. An Arkansas trial resulted in a hung jury and the state dropped the case.

"There's no way to avoid the sensationalism that comes with the problems that no accountability creates," King said. "We'll live to fight another day."

--Times staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek contributed to this report.

[Last modified May 9, 2005, 01:53:06]