Current:Home > ContactThree former Department of Education employees charged with defrauding Arizona voucher program -TradeSphere
Three former Department of Education employees charged with defrauding Arizona voucher program
View
Date:2025-04-13 11:54:29
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.
Prosecutors said Thursday that the three employees approved applications for 17 students -– five of which were fictitious -- that admitted them into the voucher program using forged birth certificates and special education evaluations.
Delores Lashay Sweet, Dorrian Lamarr Jones and Jennifer Lopez, who were fired last year from the Department of Education, are accused of using the money for their own benefit, such as luxury purchases. Two of Sweet’s adult children, Jadakah Celeste Johnson and Raymond Lamont Johnson Jr., also were charged with conspiracy and money laundering.
“They created ghost students with forged birth certificates – children that didn’t exist –- and gave them fake disability diagnoses that would make them eligible for larger funding amounts,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose office is examining other suspected abuses of the voucher program.
No attorneys for the former Department of Education employees and Johnson’s two adult children could found in court records. Phone messages left late Thursday afternoon for Sweet, Jones and Jadakah Johnson weren’t immediately returned. Efforts to get Lopez’s phone number were unsuccessful. And Raymond Johnson Jr. doesn’t have a listed phone number.
The Democratic attorney general said the case shows the voucher program is an easy target for fraud and that the Republican-majority Legislature should take steps to lessen the opportunity for fraud within the voucher program.
Sen. John Kavanagh, a Republican who supports the vouchers, said he doesn’t see the problem as fraud within the Empowerment Scholarships Account program, but rather fraud in the agency that runs it.
“I don’t think that it’s anymore damning of the ESA than when a bank teller steals money from the banking system,” Kavanagh said. “It (the problem) is about the people, not the program.”
Mayes said investigators were tipped off to the alleged fraud not by the education department, which runs the voucher program, but rather a credit union that noticed unusually large cash withdrawals.
In a statement, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne disputed that his office didn’t tell the Attorney General’s Office about the fraud, saying his office had alerted Mayes’ office about concerns about two of the three employees. He also said he has placed more controls on the program and reported other instances of suspected abuse of the voucher program to Mayes’ office.
“Our discovery of the activities of the two former staffers is consistent with my determination to root out potential fraud and abuse,” Horne said.
The voucher program lets parents use public money for private-school tuition and other education costs. It started in 2011 as a small program for disabled children. But it was expanded repeatedly over the next decade until it became available to all students in 2022.
Originally estimated to cost $64 million for the current fiscal year, budget analysts now say it could top $900 million.
The changes in Arizona’s voucher program led to a sharp increase in the number of participants. Before the expansion, nearly 12,000 students — including disabled children, those living on Native American reservations and children in low-performing schools — took part in the program. Now that all students can apply for the vouchers, more than 75,000 students participate.
Critics say the expansion is a drain on the state’s coffers, while backers say the expansion lets parents choose the best school for their children.
About 75% of the students who got vouchers immediately after the program was expanded had no prior record of attending an Arizona public school, according to Department of Education data reported in 2022. That suggests the state subsidies went largely to students whose families already were paying private school tuition. ____ Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
veryGood! (42)
Related
- Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'
- Connie Chung on the ups and downs of trailblazing career in new memoir | The Excerpt
- Gunman in Colorado supermarket shooting is the latest to fail with insanity defense
- Florida officials pressure schools to roll back sex ed lessons on contraception and consent
- Selena Gomez engaged to Benny Blanco after 1 year together: 'Forever begins now'
- 'Go into hurricane mode now': Helene expected to lash Florida this week
- Attorneys say other victims could sue a Mississippi sheriff’s department over brutality
- NFL suspends Chargers' Pro Bowl safety Derwin James for one game
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- Brie Garcia Shares Update on Sister Nikki Garcia Amid Artem Chigvintsev Divorce
Ranking
- Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
- The boyfriend of a Navajo woman is set to be sentenced in her killing
- University of California accused of labor violations over handling of campus protests
- Losing weight with PCOS is difficult. Here's what experts recommend.
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- How colorful, personalized patches bring joy to young cancer patients
- Damar Hamlin gets first career interception in Bills' MNF game vs. Jaguars
- Divers search Michigan river after missing janitor’s body parts are found in water
Recommendation
Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
The Vision and Future of QTM Community – Comprehensive Investment Support for You
Tyreek Hill’s traffic stop can be a reminder of drivers’ constitutional rights
Philadelphia Phillies clinch NL East title. Set sights on No. 1 seed in playoffs
Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
Harris is more popular than Trump among AAPI voters, a new APIA Vote/AAPI Data survey finds
Emory Callahan: The 2024 Vietnamese Market Meltdown Is It Really Hedge Funds Behind the Scenes?
Selling Sunset’s Mary Bonnet Gives Update on Her Fertility Journey