Reprinted from the NJEA Reporter, October 2003
Voucher supporters say "free market competition" is just what's needed to make struggling public schools improve.
But taxpayers in Wisconsin and Florida are learning the hard way that the "free market" in education can be a lightning rod for waste and fraud - or worse.
In Wisconsin, a convicted rapist
The name of the voucher school should have been a warning: "Alex's Academic [sic] of Excellence."
Because Milwaukee voucher schools do not have to run criminal background checks, no one knew that the school's $58,000 absentee CEO, James A. Mitchell, had been convicted of rape in 1971 and burglary in 1984 while out on parole.
But on May 3, Mitchell was sentenced for tax fraud by Circuit Judge Elsa Lamelas, who said the city's voucher program seemed to be "easy pickings for people who are not inclined to be honest."
The school moved several times in the past year, and its owner, Diane Anthony (Mitchell's girlfriend), couldn't remember the current address when asked by Judge Lamelas.
In Florida, a terrorist link
Florida's voucher program suffered a major embarrassment when it was learned that the founder and former director of the Tampa-based Islamic Academy of Florida had ties to a major terrorist group behind a number of suicide bombings in Israel.
Florida law enforcement officials and the FBI have accused Sami Al-Arian of being the North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The school has received $350,000 from the state's voucher program to help pay tuition for its 100 students.