It should come as no surprise that there are problems with vouchers for disabled students, given the state's rush to create the program and its lack of accountability.

As families take their children out of a controversial voucher school for the disabled in St. Petersburg, state Education Commissioner Charlie Crist says he wants to form a task force and "find out what the situation is and how this occurred." He could begin by looking in the mirror.

There is nothing that has happened this fall at Bethel Metropolitan Christian School that is not a predictable outcome of the Legislature's headlong rush to expand vouchers, and of Crist's compliant nods in that direction. A Legislature and state bureaucracy that have repeatedly preached public education "accountability" have created a private voucher program for disabled students that simply hands out tax money for the asking.

Here's a glimpse at how it has worked:

State education administrators wrote checks last month totaling $568,074 for 455 students in six separate schools and mailed them all to one woman, Angel Rocker, in Navarre Beach. The law specifically requires that the voucher checks be signed by parents at each school, but Crist's own administrators knew Rocker circumvented the requirement by getting parents to sign over power of attorney. In the case of Bethel, the state wrote checks for 85 students, yet fewer than 60 may still be attending now.

Don't look for Rocker to apologize. "We're not giving the money back," she told a reporter Tuesday. Who could blame her? As it currently stands, she could rake in $2.3-million this year -- all courtesy of Senate President John McKay, who created this mess.

In a year when the state is suffering a $1.4-billion deficit, it is handing $25-million to schools about which it knows virtually nothing. How does a private school get its hands on that tax money? The state law, written by McKay, says it need only "demonstrate fiscal soundness" and hire teachers who "have special skills, knowledge or expertise."

So is anyone truly surprised that the number of schools serving disabled students has increased five-fold in just a year? Can anyone seriously pretend that all these new voucher schools are worth the millions of tax dollars that are being thrown their way?

Forget about asking the public school administrators who are struggling on limited budgets and confronting the uncertainties created by a state program that allows disabled students to switch in and out of schools without reason. Ask the legitimate private school operators what they think. Mary Herscher, head of the DePaul School for Dyslexia in Clearwater, which has existed for two decades, has been shaking her head ever since the law was written. "I fear that some are jumping on the bandwagon and figuring on making some easy money," Hercher said.

Worst of all, perhaps, is what this costly voucher distraction has meant for the 337,000 disabled students who have remained in public schools. Rae Osborne's son, who is autistic, is one of the 99 of every 100 disabled students who rejected the voucher offer. Her son has been learning and progressing well with the help of a classroom aide, even making the honor roll. But that has changed.

"It may interest some to know that at the same time this expansion took place, the (state) withdrew funding for enhanced aides for disabled students," she wrote (see letter on opposite page). ". . . I believe wholeheartedly that the expansion of the McKay Scholarship program is a deliberate attempt to rid the public schools of the expense of properly educating the disabled."

The McKay vouchers may not be intended to undermine the public education of disabled students, but they most certainly are a deliberate attempt to hand out tax money in ways that lack all accountability. McKay pushed for rapid expansion, Crist rushed out 280,000 letters inviting families to participate, and they both ignored statutory deadlines and accounting practices. For them to express shock at the accusations of fraud at Bethel is a little much. The deception in this case has been largely political.

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