Three former state Education Department employees were indicted this week on charges that they defrauded Arizona's private school voucher program out of more than $600,000.
The trio is accused of falsifying admissions documents and special education evaluations for 17 students, five of whom don't even exist, in order to receive voucher funds through Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program. , is facing a series of charges including forgery, money laundering and fraud.
ESA vouchers allow students to attend private schools or be home-schooled. Republican lawmakers opened the program to all students in the state in 2022, expanding it universally. Previously, funding was reserved for students who attend D or F-rated public schools, have military families or have special educational needs.
The expansion comes after an explosion in new applicants turned out to be private school students with no public school background, making the program free for wealthy Arizonans. It has been widely condemned by critics. Since then, ESA vouchers have been repeatedly criticized by Democrats and public school advocacy groups, citing the program's ballooning costs to states and generous funding policies that allow piano and luxury car driving lessons to be classified as authorized expenses. It has been criticized.
Controversy over the lack of legal regulation of the ESA program continued Thursday, when Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays, who spearheaded the investigation into the three fraudsters, said the program was “ripe” for abuse. The criticism intensified.
Democrats outlined how the trio, the children of former Arizona Department of Education employees, and two other adults defrauded the system by falsifying birth certificates and special education records. Students with special needs receive larger grants than other students.
Mays criticized the Republican-majority Congress for its reluctance to regulate the program as part of the problem.
“My biggest concern here is that this is a program that is an easy target for scams,” she said. “Congress has never adequately funded the operation of this program. And the lack of management, regulation, and proper oversight has made the voucher ESA program a target for fraudsters.”
Former employee Delores Lachey Sweet falsified documents and claimed that nonexistent triplets lived in the home. And the non-existent twins were said to be living with former employee Jennifer Lopez. All five “ghost” children shared the same birthday. As many as 10 ESA recipients were registered as living in Mr. Sweet's home.
Mr. Sweet, Mr. Lopez and a third former employee, Dorian Lamar Jones, are all members of the ESA department's staff and approved the application for the program.
Mays said his office was tipped off by the credit union about Sweet's case and questioned why the state Department of Education didn't raise red flags first. She attributed the failure to the program's large enrollment increase, saying universal expansion was putting applications from qualified students at risk.
“That universal expansion has diminished services for students with the actual disabilities who have relied on the program and for whom the program was originally designed,” she said. “This scam is a slap in the face for parents of children with disabilities, who now have to compete for the time and resources of tens of thousands of new students entering the program and ADE staff, many of whom Already, even before this taxpayer-funded voucher for the wealthy was passed by Congress, people were attending private schools on their parents' income.”
Mays said the solution lies with the Legislature.
“It's time for Congress to put serious regulations in place to prevent the fraud we're seeing today from happening in the first place,” she said.
She said, he said: ESA supporters react
Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horn slammed Mays, calling his claims false. He noted that Sweet was the only company to receive a warning from the credit union. Both Lopez and Jones were referred to his AG's office by the Department of Education. This proves that the ministry is addressing all issues, he said.
The two were fired by the state Education Department after the AG's office raised concerns about Sweet, said AG's spokesman Richie Taylor.
Horn added that the three were hired under his predecessor, Democrat Kathy Hoffman, and said under her leadership the department was able to focus on rooting out fraud.
ESA program leader John Ward said the verification policy was in place and working. A 19-year veteran of the Arizona State Comptroller's Office, he was hired after the program's previous director abruptly resigned, shortly after a data breach that exposed information on thousands of ESA accounts to one parent. was said to have been involved.
According to the district, eight registered experts review applications and report any suspicions to superiors. Currently, the entire ESA program, which serves more than 70,000 students across the state, is staffed by 32 staff members.
Horn noted that many government programs are targets of fraud and vowed to continue protecting the ESA from fraud. But he said no action is needed from the state Legislature because the current process is sufficient.
“The unfortunate fact is that the department is not the only one that has been victimized by fraud,” he said in an emailed statement. “According to the Comptroller’s Office’s Financial Investigation Report and Fraud Prevention Alert website, there have been multiple incidents of fraud against government agencies over the past 30 years, including various state agencies, law enforcement agencies, and many school districts. .”
House Speaker Ben Thoma, who spearheaded the 2022 universal health care expansion, echoed Horne, saying fraud is rampant across government programs and state laws already exist to hold perpetrators accountable. He said he is doing so. The Glendale Republican dismissed Mays' criticism of the program as mere political opportunism.
“It is unfortunate that critics of Arizona's highly popular and successful ESA program have predictably used this opportunity to politicize and undermine it,” he said.
An indictment hearing for three former employees who are Sweet's children and two other adults involved in the alleged crimes is scheduled for March 28.
