How a Truly Epic Charter School Fraud Unfolded in Oklahoma
A case of ghost students, straw teachers, and parent bonuses sets a new low for privately operated schools.
Even as the audacity and creativity of charter school fraud, malfeasance, and corruption continues to astonish even some of the most objective observers of this sector of these publicly financed, privately operated schools, the recent example of a charter in Oklahoma may set a new low for the industry. It also reveals how confounding the bad-doings of these schools can be to uncover and police.
An Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation revealed that the co-founders of the state’s largest virtual charter school system, Epic Charter Schools, David Chaney and Ben Harris, split at least $10 million in profits from 2013 to 2018. They allegedly recruited “ghost students” (who were technically enrolled but received minimal instruction from teachers) from homeschools and sectarian private schools “for the purpose of unlawfully diverting State Appropriated Funds to their own personal use resulting in high NFAY [not full academic year] rates and low graduation rates for the students.”
Epic established an $800-to-$1000-per-student learning fund for students who did not enroll in a public school. These students were dubbed “members of the $800 club,” and assigned to “straw teachers,” who “would receive additional pay in the form of bonuses which included student retention goals,” while “those who dropped students would see a decrease in pay.”
Students were assigned to “straw teachers,” who “would receive additional pay in the form of bonuses which included student retention goals,” while “those who dropped students would see a decrease in pay.”
A search warrant cited parents who received money but admitted they had no intention of receiving instruction from Epic. One family withdrew its ten children from public schools, received $8000, and allowed the kids to ride horses instead of attending school. The warrant states, “Teachers did not take roll and determined attendance when students logged onto the computer.” This process explains why the 2018 Oklahoma report cards both showed that about 99 percent of students were “in good attendance.”
According to the state bureau of investigation, in 2013 Chaney told his board CONTINUE READING: How a Truly Epic Charter School Fraud Unfolded in Oklahoma - Progressive.org
