Three former Arizona Department of Education employees have been charged with conspiracy and money laundering in what prosecutors say was a scheme to defraud more than $600,000 from an education voucher program that has drawn criticism for soaring costs and the state's lax regulations. It is claimed that it was.
Prosecutors announced Thursday that three officials approved the applications of 17 students, five of them fictitious, who used fake birth certificates and special education evaluations to gain admission to the voucher program.
Delores Lachey Sweet, Dorian Lamar Jones and Jennifer Lopez, who were fired from the Department of Education last year, are accused of using the funds for their own benefit, including buying luxury goods. . Two of Sweet's adult children, Jadaka Celeste Johnson and Raymond Lamont Johnson Jr., were also charged with conspiracy and money laundering.
“They created ghost students – children who didn't exist – with fake birth certificates and false disability diagnoses that made them eligible for large amounts of funding,” said Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays. Stated. voucher program.
Lawyers for the former Education Department employee and Mr. Johnson's two adult children could not be found in court records. Phone messages left for Sweet, Jones and Jadaka Johnson late Thursday afternoon were not immediately returned. Attempts to obtain Lopez's phone number were unsuccessful. And Raymond Johnson Jr.'s phone number is not listed.
Democratic attorneys general said the case shows voucher programs are easy targets for fraud and the Republican-controlled Congress should take steps to reduce opportunities for fraud within voucher programs. .
Republican Sen. John Kavanaugh, who supports vouchers, said he believes the problem is not fraud within the Empowerment Scholarship Account program, but rather the agency that runs it.
“I don't think it's as much of an indictment of the ESA as a bank teller stealing money from the banking system,” Kavanagh said. “It (the issue) is about people, not programs.”
Mays said investigators were tipped off about the alleged fraud not to the Department of Education, which runs the voucher program, but to credit unions that noticed unusually large cash withdrawals.
In a statement, Superintendent Tom Horn disputed that his office failed to report the misconduct to the Attorney General's Office and that the office had raised concerns about two of the three employees. He said he notified Mays' office. He also said he has tightened controls over the program and reported other cases of suspected abuse of the voucher program to Mays' office.
“The discovery of the activities of two former employees is consistent with my commitment to root out potential fraud and abuse,” Horn said.
Voucher programs allow parents to use public funds to pay for private school tuition and other educational expenses. It started in 2011 as a small program for children with disabilities. However, it was expanded repeatedly over the next decade and became available to all students in 2022.
The cost for this fiscal year was originally estimated at $64 million, but budget analysts now say it could exceed $900 million.
Changes to Arizona's voucher program have led to a surge in participation. Before the expansion, approximately 12,000 students participated in the program, including children with disabilities, children living on Native American reservations, and children attending low-performing schools. All students can now apply for a voucher, with over 75,000 students participating.
Critics say the expansion wastes state funds, while supporters say it will allow parents to choose the best school for their children.
According to Department of Education data reported in 2022, about 75% of students who received vouchers immediately after the program expanded had never attended an Arizona public school. This suggests that most of the state aid went to students whose families were already paying. Private school tuition fees. _
