Bill Lee has a longstanding affinity for privatization Arizona-style
Back in 2017, I warned that plans to voucherize Tennessee’s public schools sounded eerily like the voucher scam in Arizona.
That scheme led Arizona to a huge budget hole created by vouchers. It only took seven years to get there.
A few years later, I noted that Lee’s charter commission plans also mimicked a scheme taking shape in Arizona.
Now, news out of Arizona regarding fraud in that state’s voucher program should give Tennessee policymakers pause.
Three former Arizona Department of Education employees were indicted on conspiracy and money laundering charges in what prosecutors say was a scheme to defraud more than $600,000 from an education voucher program that has drawn criticism for its skyrocketing costs and lax regulation by the state.
The scheme saw employees create fake student profiles and approve the “ghost” students for vouchers – funds that were then paid to DOE employees.
Tennessee’s proposed school voucher scheme has come under fire for its lack of accountability. Without strict tracking of both expenditures and student performance, fraud along the lines of what has happened in Arizona is quite possible.
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