Fiscal Rangers

Why Government Agencies Need Strong Spending Controls

Arizona school district dropped employee credit card spending reviews of invoices under $2000, and got cought by local TV station public records request. Read more →

Homeschooling? Thinking about it for any reason?

Here is the site of the Florida Parent Educators Association (FPEA) which has all sorts of info, and is holding its annual conference in Orlando in May 2022. Bookmark it to send to others when they discuss this later. Lake County, FL schools are pretty well run, but you never know when an alternative is needed to government-run schools such as when you are across the border in Orlando. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com Read more →

Texas Pediatrician rants about dangers of masks, Covid vaccines and lack of health improvement discussions - Debbie Georgatos show

Click HERE to see a Debbie Georgatos video interview on America Can We Talk of a 25-year Pediatrician, Dr. Angelina Farella, describing the DANGERS of masks, DANGERS of Covid vaccines and asking hard questions ike "why isn't anyone preaching good practices to BUILD immune systems, or good health to reduce OBESITY which is the main contributor to serious Covid Cases?" Debbie Georgatos is a well-known conservative vlogger in Texas who interviews many working professionals like doctors about the REAL FACTS related to issues like masks, Covid, election fraud, etc. Her main website is: https://americacanwetalk.org/. You will not support masks at all, or vaccines or the Biden regime's Covid rules after watching this America Can We Talk interview held by Debbie Georgatos on Sept. 15, 2021. https://rumble.com/vmmsft-dr.-angelina-farella-acwt-interview-9.15.21.html This is one of many sources I have gathered for my "Masks are dangerous.." webpage at: https://www.fiscalrangers.com/masks-are-dangerous-and-here-is-why.html By Vance Jochim - published Sept 17, 2021 Fiscalrangers.com [email protected] === Read more →

MASKS are Dangerous in our opinion and should not be mandated - FiscalRangers.com Factsheet

Contrary to advice of Dr. Anthony Faucie, the Biden Administration, WHO and the CDC, masks for students or adults are DANGEROUS in our opinion and we list the reasons and sources that you can use to make up your own mind. Read more →

Lake County, FL Parents rant at School Board over CRT and other issues

Yesterday, June 14, 2021, there was yelling and emotions by parents at the Lake County, FL School Board meeting about CRT (Critical Race Theory) being taught in at least one school and about retention of a teacher with a questionable background. Read more →

Florida Standards (Common Core) Listening Tour skips Lake, Orange, Sumter, Polk & Marion County! WHY?

The Florida Dept. of Education is conducting a review of the Common Core based Florida Education Standards. They are having a listening tour in parts of Florida, but skipping Lake, Orange, Polk, Sumter & Marion Counties. Why? We provide links to information and the press release but have no answer why they are skipping those counties. But we include links where parents can go online and review the second draft of proposed new standards and submit comments. Read more →

Liberal Hyprocrites are facing a conundrum - should schools teach LGBTQ (which angers Muslims & others)

The UK columnist Katie Hopkins comments in this brief video on how Muslim parents are now demanding removal of class topics on LGBTQ issues. It is starting in Birmingham, UK and she suggest it will be a new Muslim demand that will spread to other UK schools. How soon before that conflict affects US schools and colleges? Read more →

Federal & Florida ADA Compliance laws are wrecking local government transparency and incurring huge costs

Tavares, FL March 11, 2019 Federal and Florida regulations on compliance with the American Disabilities Act (ADA) are causing excess costs and reduced public transparency over local government meeting videos, agendas, budgets and even annual financial reports (CAFR's). Essentially, some scummy lawyers found that ADA requirements can be interpreted to require that any local government has to provide online information in a format that can be read by ADA software tools used by the disabled, such as vision limited or hearing limited. Apparently, the tools use screen "scanning" to find text or picture captions that can then be converted to audio so the disabled can "read" or "hear" the online information. We wrote an earlier story about this in January 2019 HERE, after the Orlando Sentinel published a story about it. It contains more about the scummy lawsuits, so I did not repeat it here. The Jan. 6, 2019 Orlando Sentinel story is here. And very few local governments have the funds to revamp their websites and file systems to comply with the lawsuit demands. Now, a city like Orlando could afford to get the software and modify all their files so they can be read by the ADA tools,... Read more →

New York Teacher penalizes student for not answering biased, anti-Trump question in homework

A New York teacher gave homework assignments (in 2017) to students with an anti-Trump fill-in question, but the student's father rejected the homework, then the teacher penalized the student and said her question was free speech. Read the article. This biased student homework assignment against conservatives and Trump as practiced in NY is a reason why parents are pulling their kids from public schools. Unless the Lake County, FL School Board issues a mission statement that prohibits teachers from exhibiting such bias and revisionist history, then local parents may believe it is also happening in Lake County, especially when one Board member is known to support socialist Gillum for Governor and another has ties to the SEIU unions. Here is another source for the story which is from 2017. This was also shared on Facebook to: FiscalRangers Trump Team Defenders Group Villagers for Trump Marc Dodd Stephanie Luke for School Board Bill Mathias Lake County Schools Sandy Gamble for Lake County School Board, District 4 Lake Federated Republican Women's Club North Lake Tea Party Republican Party of Florida Tavares, FL Dec. 31, 2018 Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com Read more →

Lake County, FL School Board needs to reject Hillary's socialism doctrine of downplaying parental rights

Tavares, FL Memorial Day, May 28, 2018 Hillary's quote in this meme clearly indicates one of the problems with the liberals, Democrats and unions who support them. They believe that "the state" or government, should be more important in development of children than parental and family values. Their attitude that government is always more right than parents is scary, and is one of the concepts woven into K-12 textbooks, college teacher training, and "reading materials" used to support class topics. Suggested reading materials cited by the original, liberal created Common Core initiative included many sections preaching this idea of the State taking precedence over parents. This can be one cause for students to be rebeling more because they may have been indoctrinated that parental opinions are not important. Recently a grandparent filed a complaint with the Lake County school district about a book containing objectionable statements. The Lake County School District Board needs to pick a side in this controversy and distance themselves from this indoctrination by clearly rejecting this concept of the State superceding parents, stating so in their mission statement, class blueprints and instructions to teachers. By doing so, and implementing transparency in policies prohibiting political bias in... Read more →

Conservative parent reasons to move kids from Florida public schools to charters or homeschooling

Florida public schools migrated to Common Core several years ago and embedded many liberal, biased concepts. Now charter school and home school funding is easier and parents have reasons to move their students to values based schools or teaching. This will continue to happen unless Florida School Districts change their written missions, teaching practices and learning materials to those supporting conservative values, not liberal, biases derived from the Obama Common Core standards. Read more →

Islamic bias in textbooks: Well known conservative Law Center files Federal lawsuit against Maryland School District for teaching Islam in schools

A formal Federal lawsuit has been filed by the Thomas More Law Center, a heavy hitter in the conservative legal field, against a Virginia School District, their Board, and the Principal and Vice Principle who violated the US Constitution and Civil Rights regulations by requiring students to study Islam for two weeks. They have been collecting case notes and background on Islamic bias in schools for probably 18 months. Many K-12 textooks (or required “information documents”) have heavy Islam indoctrination in them, while there is not much on Christianity. The Islam sections break the US Constitutional boundaries of teaching any religion in schools, and it is time a Federal lawsuit was filed to challenge the biased textbooks and related Islamic teachings. Read more →

ESEA Federal Bill Needs to be Defeated - Learn Why and Call your Congressman

Concerned about Obama Education inititiatives and damage caused by Common Core? More damage will occur if you don't call Congress to derail a ESEA or No Child Left Behind bill vote on Tuesday or Wednesday, Dec. 2 or 3. Here is some background why you need to act. Read more →

Georgia School District hears from angry parents about use of Islam biased textbooks & lessons

Georgia parents upset of over Islamic bias in World History textbooks that don't mention Islamic killing of 270-million people, beheadings, stonings, abuse of women, rape, paedophelia. Will it happen in Lake County, Florida. Read more →

Blogger Article takes down Chicago Schools CEO Indicted for Funneling No-bid contracts to former employers for kickbacks

Tavares, FL Oct. 13, 2015 "Last Thursday, former Chicago Public School CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett was indicted by a federal grand jury for funneling $23-million in no-bid CPS contracts to former employers in exchange for kickbacks." Here is a local, Chicago TV video report. The CEO was appointed by Democrat Rahm Emmanuel Read why watchdog bloggers, internal audits and oversight are needed on all government agencies. A blogger's article was read by the Schools' Inspector General, who investigated further, and then the FBI took over. "Beginning in April 2012, the federal indictment says, Byrd-Bennett, Solomon and Vranas “knowingly devised, intended to devise, and participated in a scheme to defraud and to obtain money and property from CPS” by fraudulent means. Byrd-Bennett is said to have agreed to accept bribes and kickbacks that would be paid by $127,000 being deposited into each of her twin grandsons’ “college tuition accounts” when she returned to SUPES as an employee–even if for just a day." VJ Read more →

Small Town California Newspaper gets Pulitzer for Investigation Series on Local School District Corruption

A California school district with only four schools and 6600 students suffered huge fiscal losses due to cronyism and corruption and overpayment of salaries. The local paper published a 10-part investigative series and won a Pulitzer. One of the lessons is the corruption that can occur when contracting firms support elected school board members to get huge school bond issues totaling $200-million and related projects approved. Additionally, the District Superindant was paid $663,000 in salaries, benefits and perks, which was much higher than the Superintendant of the much larger Los Angeles School District. Read more →

Schools Update on APUSH (AP US History): GA State Senator files bill to change APUSH - "Leftist slant to APUSH turns America's melting pot into boiling pot"

A GA State Senator has filed a bill demanding leftist bias in the new high school AP US History course from the College Board be modified to be balanced. Other links on the liberal APUSH course and curriculum are included. Read more →

Common Core Update: Here is a FIVE minute overview of the dangers of Common Core by renowned speaker Dr. Duke Pesta - He is coming to the Villages Apr. 17

Tavares, FL March 21, 2015 Dr. Duke Pesta is probably the best speaker on why Common Core should be rejected. Watch his five minute overview of the dangers of Common Core HERE. He will be speaking in The Villages, FL on April 17, 2015. Visit his website http://fpeusa.org . Then, if you have time, watch my 90 minute video of him when he spoke last September in Lake County . Or, read MY older Factsheet on Common Core Dangers HERE. It lists links to many other speakers and resources. www.tinyURL.com/HaltCommonCoreNow Then join the Facebook page "Lake County against Common Core" HERE. The organizers frequently meet with the Lake County School Board and FL State legislators and are active in providing information on how to "opt_out" your kids from excess Common Core testing. AND, LIKE this Florida wide anti-Common Core Facebook page HERE (5100 other people have liked this page). Then, sign up to see him in the Villages on April 17, 2015 HERE. BONUS for blog readers: Another anti-Common Core expert, Diane Ravitch, wrote a LONG Jan. 18, 2014 article in the Washington Post about everything you want to know about Common Core, which is HERE, After viewing any of... Read more →

Will Lake County Schools implement the one world IB education program?

The Lake County School Board may initiate IB education programs if two School Board members have their way. There are pros and cons, and we will have more next week. Read more →

School Districts Need to Arrest Parents of Absent students like Jacksonville Just Did

Most school districts in Florida have major problems with student absenteeism and tardiness, which results in failing students and schools being ranked poorly. But Jacksonville, FL school administrators arranged warrants for parent of chronically absent and tardy students and had them arrested with a bail of $1500+. All school districts, including the Lake County FL School District, should follow Jacksonville's lead and ENFORCE truancy regulations. Read more →

FiscalRangers School Alert: Los Angeles Unified School System suspends contract for iPads due to "conflicts" and poor performance

Aug. 26, 2014 The Los Angeles Times reports questionable conflicts in iPad and Pearson publishing purchases at Los Angeles Unified School District (my mother taught there). http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-deasy-ipads-20140826-story.html "The suspension comes days after disclosures that the superintendent and his top deputy had especially close ties to executives of Apple, maker of the iPad, and Pearson, the company that is providing the curriculum on the devices. And an internal report that examined the technology effort showed major problems with the process and the implementation." "Last week, a draft report of a district technology committee, obtained by The Times, was strongly critical of the bidding process." Apparently there are questions about conflict of interest, including both Apple, and Pearson publishing, a well know monopoly provider of education products including software on the iPads. "In one email, from May 24, 2012, Aquino seems to strategize with higher-ups from Pearson on how to ensure that it got the job. "I believe we would have to make sure that your bid is the lowest one," wrote Aquino, who was an executive with a Pearson affiliate before joining L.A. Unified." (Talk about conflicts... rotating execs is a big red flag) I would hope there are no such... Read more →

APUSH Update - Recent articles on College Board's AP US History revisions by liberals

Tavares, FL August 27, 2014 by Vance Jochim at FiscalRangers.com I will not rehash the articles below, so here is a list of the most recent ones on liberalized AP US History revisions by the liberal College Board. "AP" or advanced placement high school courses and exams are defined by the non-profit, private College Board. By redefining the exams to reflect a liberal interpretation to downplay American Exceptionalism, they can bypass state Education Dept. curriculums by issuing a "framework" of topics covered by exams that are not balanced. To get high scores on AP exams to earn college credits, high schools teachers and students would have to follow and learn only the liberal APUSH revisions. NOTE: I also wrote an Aug. 19th article HERE in the national WatchDogWire.com news service about APUSH and how the Republican National Committee (RNC) approved a resolution to defund the College Board and delay roll out of the exams for a year, plus other conditions. HERE is the RNC webpage citing the resolution against the APUSH revisions. See also my expanding factsheet on APUSH HERE. The items below will be added to it. Recent APUSH References to August 26, 2014 from Vance Jochim The issue... Read more →

Monday's Lake County School Board Workshop was controversial and here are TWO opinions

Two opinions of issues discussed at the June 2nd workshop of the Lake County FL School District Board. How the Board voted DOWN a Federal income redistribution scheme, and how staff manipulated data to justify wage increases. Read more →

Common Core Update: Missouri Teacher Tearfully Testifies Why Common Core is NO GOOD!

Tavares, FL March 28, 2014 No matter what the FL Dept of Ed says, they are still using Common Core, and the testing firm they hired, AIR, is affiliated with liberal groups who may be even worse than PARCC. Since Florida Gov. Scott continues to support Common Core (under a rebranded name which fools no one), some conservatives are abandoning support for him. This experienced Missouri teacher was bullied by administrators and some other teachers for standing up to Common Core. She has a degree in early childhood development, and tells all to a Missouri legislative Committee – 11 minutes. Watch it. http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/03/28/watch-teachers-tearful-testimony-on-being-bullied-and-intimated-for-opposing-common-core-108962 Gee, I might as well include some bonus links on recent Common Core issues: Here is political consultant Dick Morris on how Common Core Curriculum is Destroying local control of schools (hey, States rights are being killed too) http://www.dickmorris.com/common-core-curriculum-is-destroying-local-control-of-schools-dick-morris-tv-lunch-alert/?utm_source=dmreports&utm_medium=dmreports&utm_campaign=dmreports Here is a link to a 27,000 member Facebook page “Parents & Educators Against Common Core Standards”. It says 332,000 people are “talking” about this. https://www.facebook.com/ParentsAndEducatorsAgainstCCSS This is the most active FL group against Common Core: http://www.flstopcccoalition.org/about-us/ They just held a great one day conference opposing Common Core in Orlando attended by over 300 people. I was there.... Read more →

Common Core Victim? Mom posts picture of her child struggling with complex Common Core homework PLUS link to yesterday's video of Common Core Hearing in Orlando

A picture of this child is circulating where she is crying while trying to cope with the illogical and excessively complex homework from Common Core. AND, the Florida State Education Board ignored many public complaints at a five hour public hearing and approved use of Common Core standards with only a few miniscule modifications. We have the video link to the five hour hearing. Read more →

Video Explains Specifics of Common Core Dumbing Down K-12 Education

Tavares, FL Jan. 19, 2014 Links to this video are circulating among Common Core opponents, and the Local School Board members need to be aware of the described issues. The webpage title describes a scary quote from recommended teacher notes in the TEACHER’s version of a textbook telling her to instruct students that right wing groups are fascist. However, the speaker, Terrance Moore, also explains much of the other damaging work done by Common Core designers to reduce critical thinking, literature, math skills and Euclidian math concepts (aka logic). http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/18/teachers-instructed-to-teach-all-right-wing-extremist-groups-are-fascist-video/ Unfortunately Moore did not specify the textbook name so we can not determine if it is used in Florida or Lake County. (It apparently might be in his book “Storykillers” which is about the “Case against Common Core”). http://www.amazon.com/Story-Killers-Common-Sense-Case-Against-Common-ebook/dp/B00GB1QS9E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390142817&sr=8-1&keywords=storykillers “What is the Common Core? How will the Common Core English Standards affect the teaching of great stories in our schools? Will there be any great stories left in the minds of our children when the Common Core has controlled the curriculum and testing of both public and private schools for a few years? What are the real purposes behind the educational coup that has taken place with very little public... Read more →

Florida Common Core Update: Florida Republican County leaders send detailed letter to others objecting to Common Core

Tavares, FL - Monday, Sept. 2 See update in red below - 37 people have now signed the letter. vj Florida & Lake County Common Core Update: 12 Florida GOP Committee men & women and County Republican party Chairs sent a letter to other Florida "Republican Leaders" objecting to Common Core. Signers include Mike Levine, Lake County Republican Executive Committee Chair, and Patricia Sullivan, Florida State Committeewoman for Lake County. What is interesting is that the Lake County REC never discussed issuing a resolution so Levine & Sullivan are speaking as individuals without any vote of the REC. I know, because I am chair of the Public Policy committee who was going to bring a resolution against Common Core before the REC at the end of Sept. We were going to do it last month, but the August meeting was dedicated to Lake County Transportation Funding issues. But, reasons for prompt action do exist: the recent 3 day Tampa "Education Summit" was held by Gov. Scott which was not announced until 2 business days before the meeting with already selected panel members using the “Delphi” technique and with mostly Common Core supporters on the panels. The Delphi technique is used... Read more →

Common Core Video & Update for Lake County, FL

Eustis, FL - August 6, 2013 Here is my video of a Common Core Presentation by Lake County FL School District on Aug. 6, 2013 in Eustis, FL. http://youtu.be/1ACDJ4UeOTU It only contained the Schools viewpoint, but they did provide some good answers to some public concerns. This was a presentation to about 80-100 public attendees by the staff of the Lake County School District (Florida) on how they are implementing Common Core, along with answering questions. Contains a segment by a representative of the Florida Dept of Education, plus an overview of security over kids data, and three good presentations by teachers on how they are implementing Common Core. Several questions from the public were answered including a lame one I asked because I tried winging it. This was the second of two public events on Common Core by the School District. The first one in Clermont, FL, had the same speakers, but was not as good because most questions were from teachers about administrative issues. So teachers might want to watch our video of that one also at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKdzx7Gej0k . Additionally, the Lake County Republican Party had an earlier public event on Common Core with both advocates and opponents... Read more →

Videos of June 27th Common Core Forum in Tavares, FL Hosted by Lake County Republican Party

Tavares, FL - June 29th, 2013 Two videos of the June 27th, 2013 Common Core Forum in Lake County, FL are embedded below or linked HERE (Part 1) & (Part 2) . Hosted by the Lake County, FL Republican Party. Names of panelists are in attached page below or in text on YouTube pages. Two panelists were for Common Core and two were against it. Note: The panelists assumed attendees knew the history of Common Core, so it was not clearly presented. To get better background on Common Core, look at our Factsheet at www.tinyurl.com/HaltCommonCoreNow . Download Common Core Forum Panelists Info Download 2013-06-27 CC REC Forum Download Top 10 Objections to Common Core Education Standards - Handout Summary of Event: Both sides made relevant points. However, most audience sentiment was against Common Core, so a planned straw vote was not taken. Video - Part one - Two hours Video Part two - about 30 min Read more →

Florida Bill SB-806 to Provide More School Schedule Flexibility Being Fought by Tourism Industry & Disney

Tavares, FL - Thursday, March 21, 2013 School Districts in Florida are waiting for progress on a bill SB-806 (2013), that will allow them more flexibility in scheduling student calendars and when end of session tests are given. Right now, the Florida state mandated schedule calendars force them to give exams AFTER Christmas break, which disrupts the learning and success rates. Read more on the bill and about who is fighting the bill here: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2013/mar/20/bill-floating-in-the-legislature-gives-florida/ You can monitor progress of Bill SB-806 here: http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/0806 NOTE: Below are the 2013 Lake County School District Legislative Priorities, but this bill is not on it, although I remember them discussing it at a Board meeting. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com ============================================================ Lake County Schools (Florida) 2013 Legislative Priorities (Source: N. Challenger in Superintendant's Office) 1. Respect the constitutional authority of local elected school board members to "supervise, operate and control" public schools in all areas, included, but not limited to, flexibility in categorical spending, instruction, performance pay, budget, personnel, charter schools, and school calendars. 2. To adequately fund community colleges for offering Dual Enrollment programs to high school students. 3. Redistribute available PECO funds to include public schools. Prior to 2011, PECO funds were allocated... Read more →

Factors in Successful Applications for New Florida Charter School Approvals

Tavares, FL - Oct. 11, 2012 Florida has regulations that provide incentives to create charter schools, and most School Boards are seeing charter school applications increase. The proponents of a new charter school must apply to the local Countywide School Boards for approvals. In Lake County, FL, we have several "conversion" charter schools, where existing County schools convert to Charter schools, and we have several other schools run by external groups. The Lake County School Board gets 2-3 applications for new charter schools each year, but most of them are incomplete and end up not going anywhere. This article about a wave of Charter School applications in Duvall County, FL (Jacksonville area) indicates some unique reasons for charter school applications: - Counties with POOR school rankings are a target for new charter schools since the parents are more easily convinced that alternative schools are needed. - Counties without poor rankings, like St. John's County, rarely see charter school applications and local parents reject them because the local public schools are highly ranked and respected. Thus the big lesson for school district staff and officials is that if you get the school rankings up, there is less public support for charter... Read more →

Florida Online Virtual Schools Outscore AP Tests from Regular Schools & Cost $2159 Less

Tavares, FL - JN. 23, 2012- SunshineStateNews.com reports that Florida's virtual online school for K-12 students is getting higher scores on AP (Advanced Placement) tests than regular schools, AND it costs $2159 less than regular schools to do so. Read and understand... competition once again hits the union dominated teacher ranks, and shows how well routine tasks can be implemented. We do know that Florida recently mandated that online classes be given also by local school districts, which means the unions may dominate that new skills area and be a reason for increased costs. However, we do understand that the online courses may be designed to enable passing tests, but perhaps not on how to think. In other words, will we just be getting robots that are good at test taking? Are online learning software programs also available to teach critical thinking and other non-rote learning skills? I think so, but that is another story. http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/spending-2159-less-student-online-school-outscores-florida-campuses-ap-exams?utm_source=constantcontact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=012312 If you like this, and want to keep up with news on Lake County, FL local government issues, join our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/FiscalRangers vj Read more →

Maryland County's Inspector General to Examine School Budget Systems after Failure to Disclose $14-million Surplus

It seems that School District staff in Montgomery, MD failed to notify County council members BEFORE they approved the new annual budget of a $14.5-million surplus in funds due to savings in employee benefit expenses. And, they found that the staff knew of the surplus cash before the budget agreements were reached. Most times we hear about fiscal fiascos where government agencies later discover more expenses than planned in the budget, but this is a surplus. Why would they hide the surplus and not disclose it to elected officials setting the budget? - Plain mistakes. - Plans to save the funds for some favored project or wage hikes later in the new budget year. - Prevent elected officials from allocating the funds to projects not supported by staff or other elected officials. But, by not disclosing the surplus funds, credibility of budget and financial processes and reports from staff are questionable, which is why the County Inspector General (no such position exists in most Florida Counties) decided to review the Districts financial reporting. Budget methods are NOT standardized like annual financial statements, and it is easy for staff to snafu, or purposely not disclose certain items since independent oversight on... Read more →

Ohio Schools Business Manager to be Sentenced for Bribery, Embezzlement & Theft

I add this article as a case study of one type of corruption possible in local government or School Districts. In this case, a School District Business Manager apparently was able to embezzle funds from the sale of school owned construction equipment. vj AKRON -- Former Maple Heights schools official Steve Canepa, who most recently worked for the West Geauga schools, will be sentenced Monday in federal court on Cuyahoga County corruption-related counts tied to his former Maple Heights job. Canepa, 43, of Mantua, was charged with three counts related to bribery, and one each for theft and mail fraud. He is admitting the theft charge but pleaded not guilty when he was first charged with all five counts. He will appear Monday before U.S. District Judge John Adams. His attorney, Mark Marein, said Canepa only committed one of the five crimes he is accused of. Prosecutors claim Canepa embezzled proceeds from the 2008 sale of a boom lift used for construction and owned by the Maple Heights school system. Canepa resigned from West Geauga on Aug. 23 but had been on medical leave since May. Canepa cited personal matters for his departure and thanked the school board and others... Read more →

National Legal & Policy Center Tracks SEIU & Other Union Corruption Cases

We periodically read about union leaders running amok and stealing union funds or committing other transgressions. In 2009 and earlier, many unions like SEIU were found to be affiliated with ACORN. And, here is an organization, the National Legal & Policy Center, that TRACKS union corruption and crimes. Below is a link just to a search on the SEIU union, which is a national union, but they are the union for non-instructional workers at Lake County School Systems. The search report lists the pages and pages of listings of crimes committed by SEIU members across the country. No corporation would have such a track record among their branches or stores, but it seems the SEIU tolerates these antics and doesn't implement stronger policies and procedures to keep the crooks out. I don't have any evidence of wrongdoing in the local SEIU at the Lake County School District, but if I was a Lake County member of SEIU, would I be comfortable providing my support and dues to a national union with the constant problems listed at the link below? (or just go to www.nlpc.org and find the reports and search on SEIU ) http://www.nlpc.org/category/keywords/service-employees-international-union-seiu vj Read more →

Education in China stretches just to get everyone to 9th grade

So you think education in Florida is bad, and underfunded. Here is a link to the Chinese government website on education strategy. To them, they are still trying to bring much of the rural population up to only 9 years of education. Only some 43% of the Chinese population has been to high school. Read some of the linked pages - very interesting. By the end of 2004, China had 2,236 schools of higher learning, with over 20 million students; the gross rate of enrollment in schools of higher learning (college - 13th year and beyond) reached 19 percent. Postgraduate education is the fastest growing sector, with 24.1 percent more students recruited and 25.9 percent more researchers than the year before. This enrollment growth indicates that China has entered the stage of popular education. The UNESCO world higher education report of June 2003 pointed out that the student population of China's schools of higher learning had doubled in a very short period of time, and was the world's largest. Much of the statistics may result from the low enrollment in rural areas and higher enrollment in the large cities. http://english.gov.cn/about/education.htm vj Read more →

Drastic Hikes in Florida Unemployment Insurance Start January 1, Reducing Funds for Other Agencies

Most Florida businesses will get an unexpected hike in employee unemployment insurance taxes starting January 1, 2010. This problem will cascade into another fight for the total remaining Florida tax revenues, thus reducing the remaining funds for other agencies, including Schools, etc. (and, remember, Charlie Crist just approved the $600-million SunRail system, which will also compete for funds. Additionally,if Obama's health plan passes, it mandates drastic hikes in Medicaid payments for Florida and other states that have low Medicaid payments, thus that will "suck" more funds out of Florida State cash). Below is a briefing sent out by the Eustis Chamber of Commerce that gives a good description of the tax hike, which significantly increases bottom line costs for each employee. If you are business owner, you need to know about this tax, and perhaps take the actions requested by the Chamber. If you are an employee, you need to understand how the State has used up their unemployment insurance fund to pay unemployment insurance, and has been borrowing $300-million per MONTH from the Federal government to continue paying unemployment payments. The tax hike means that your employer's cost will go up, which means that there will be another reason... Read more →

Update on Monroe County (FL) School District $180,000 Grand Theft & Fraud case

Below is a follow up article on the $180,000 fraud case in Monroe County in the School District. - People are calling for the resignation of the School Supt because his wife is accused. - High School students running for office are doing so on a "fiscal integrity" ticket. - They are barely starting investigation into misuse of school credit cards... This is a good example of how ignoring cash and finance controls at a school, possibly due to nepotism, can really cause problems not only for a School District Board but the Superintendent. Note: In the Lake County (FL) School District, there have been two past audits of school accounts where it was found that Lake County high schools had very poor controls over game tickets. They could not match the ticket "sold" count to the cash collected. I was in the audit committee meetings for one of the audit presentations, and we tried to get the issue added to the personnel file for the Principals who ignored earlier audit findings, but it went nowhere. The problem was that if you cannot account for serially numbered tickets "sold" or distributed at football games, etc. then it means either someone... Read more →

Florida School District Superintendent's Wife Skims $180,000

Updated May 1, 2009 to better explain weak vs strong cash controls that should have been used. vj Florida School District Superintendent's Wife Skims $180,000 In our never ending quest to find examples of poor or weak government financial practices, here is another one regarding a school district, and some lessons we can learn from it. Nepotism struck a Miami area School District big time when the wife of the Monroe (FL)County School Superintendent allegedly skimmed $180,000 from fees PAID IN CASH for an adult cosmetology class she ran, and also by improperly using a school district credit card over many years. Magically, the lady flew away to North Carolina right after the finance director started asking some questions, and they are trying to get her to fly back. And, they haven't been able to get the husband and Superintendent to come in for an interview... This illustrates how important it is to have quality internal controls and audits, AND GOOD CASH AND COLLECTION CONTROLS especially when any employee related to high ranking school district administrators have access to ANY funds or assets. In a well controlled environment, any fees for classes would be paid directly to a separate finance... Read more →

Louisiana School Board District Scammed out of $8.6-million

Here is one of our continuing collection of articles on how many ways School Districts fail to prevent fraud and corruption. This one is in Louisiana and the School Board Lost $8.6-million. Favorite quotes: "The five were named in an indictment charging them with defrauding the school system of $8.6 million for air-conditioning contracts over a four-year period. Federal investigators say the school district was charged for more expensive air-conditioning equipment than was installed, for equipment and installation in nonexistent rooms, for amounts in excess of the contract price and for replacing units that were functioning properly." "Wilson and Lee are accused of overcharging and fraudulently billing the school system, while Johnston, Rhodes and Rowes are charged with falsely certifying the right equipment was installed and approving invoices for payment that included false information." My new mantra is: Professional "Educators" should be embarrassed over their profession's inability or unwillingness to implement well known financial and accounting controls to prevent these types of frauds and scams. vj from the Shreveport, LA Times January 6, 2009 Defendants plead not guilty to defrauding School Board of $8.6M By Loresha Wilson [email protected] Five people who were indicted last month in connection with the Bossier... Read more →

Corrupt Chicago Proves Again They Should NOT be Allowed to Have Taxpayer Funds

This is too good. This is not only a report of fraud, but just dumb government spending of taxpayer funds. We focus not only on government agency fraud but mis-management, and it is clear that the Chicago School District is getting too much income It seems the Chicago School District's Inspector General received 1,012 complaints about waste, fraud and mismanagement regarding the Chicago School District. In one of them, a Chicago School District manager went out and paid $70,000 for 30 espresso machines for work-school programs in high schools, and five months after the purchase, 22 of them were still unpacked and in the boxes. Additionally, the managers involved bypassed purchasing controls to avoid required approvals, and thus also overpaid $12,000 for the machines. The article below also lists some other Chicago School District fiscal blunders, and they get the FiscalRangers.com Fiscal Fiasco award for the week! You can visit the Chicago School District Inspector General's webpage HERE and download their 2008 annual report which contains more details on all the fiascos. vj Favorite quotes about Chicago and the School District mis-management The inspector general's office had 1,012 complaints alleging misconduct, waste, fraud and financial mismanagement in the district. Of... Read more →

Christian Groups May Start Campaign to Pull Students out of Public Schools

It seems that many Christian groups are getting fed up with public school systems for various reasons, and some of them are hatching a plan to get many Christian families to pull their kids from public school systems. I can remember the political correctness in California schools, and the efforts of Muslims and other groups to rewrite school books to proselytize their own beliefs (about gays, etc.) and acceptance of behaviors not condoned by Christian groups. Whatever you think about the reasons for doing this, if it takes off, it will be interesting to see what happens to the size and budgets of school districts everywhere. So, maybe the practitioners of political correctness and liberal viewpoints might find their "in the face" efforts in some areas of the country could become very costly. Frequent listeners to conservative talk shows often hear college kids call in to describe liberal professors and their indoctrination attempts in class. How many conservative families had their k-12 kids pushed to learn only about Obama and democratic viewpoints? I don't know. Read the article here and view the video - I don't know how big this movement is, but since we focus on fiscal issues, pulling... Read more →

Dept of Justice Convicts Georgia man of $2000,000 Bribery of Atlanta School District Official

In case you think that bribery of local government officials is just a local matter, think again. Here, the US Dept. of Justice Attorney prosecuted and convicted an Atlanta man of paying $2000,000 in bribes to an Atlanta IT Director to get awarded some contracts. Favorite quote: "Today's sentencing demonstrates the Department's resolve to hold accountable individuals who disrupt the competitive process and frustrate efforts to help our nation's economically disadvantaged school children," said Deborah A. Garza , Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division. R. Clay Harris was sentenced to five years in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and with two co-defendants was ordered to pay restitution of $234,324.50. vj SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice Local Businessman Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Fraud & Bribery Involving Federal 'E-Rate' Funds ATLANTA, Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- R. Clay Harris, 56, of Peachtree City, Ga., was sentenced today by United States District Judge Clarence Cooper on charges of bribery and conspiring to bribe a former Atlanta Public Schools (APS) official and to deprive APS and the citizens of Atlanta of that official's honest services. "This defendant paid over two hundred... Read more →

Florida Teachers Union President Asks for Sales Tax Increase

The head of the Florida Education Association (the Florida Teachers Union) is asking for a $3.5-billion "temporary" 3 year sales tax increase for School Districts. See the Orlando Sentinel blog posting at the link below. Our thought is based upon what we have seen so far. The Schools should not get any more funds until they improve their fiscal management systems to the level used by businesses. For example, we recently posted the big differences between the Florida outmoded line item budget format and that used by the City of St. Paul, Minnesota. Then, we reported on a State Legislators groups saying that the line item budget only tells what is being spent, but provides no clear, businesslike analysis data on the effectiveness of programs. Thus, as we have seen, the Board is asked to approve a budget without any key performance indicators or value analysis showing whether the program had value and the outcomes of the programs were measurable and met expected standards. School Boards need to start reducing excess spending like any business would. For instance, the Orange County School District reduced school bus subsidies to parents by revising bus schedules to be more efficient, saving millions. In... Read more →

Michigan School District Must Payback $1.5-2-million to State for Overcounting Students

Most School Districts, including those in Florida, and apparently Michigan, receive education funds from the State Government by counting students in specific ways and times, and submitting the count to the State to get paid a defined amount per student (called FTE or Full Time Equivalent). Michigan currently sends the District $8241 per counted student. Apparently, the administrators at a School District in Godwin Heights either didn't know math very well, or couldn't read State instructions, and sent an inaccurate FTE count for "alternative education" students that overstated the FTE by 200. An audit found that the overstatement was not legitimate and now the District has to payback $850,000 for last year after the new school year started. AND, they overstated the count the prior two years also, thus the total payback will be almost $2-million. Favorite Quote: "If I mismanaged to the tune of $1.8 million, I should get the boot real quick," said Remi Montigny, father of four Godwin students, who manages a Kalamazoo insurance company. "We are not a rich district, and our quality is slipping away, and someone has to take more responsibility for this terrible thing." (Note: The article does say the District has a... Read more →

California School Administrator Commits Job Bigamy

A school administrator in a California school district worked both his full time job in the district, but was also paid for another full time job in a different school district. I consider that Job Bigamy! The article below give the details, but it indicates the lack of ethics on the part of the administrator AND the apparent lack of ethics policy or enforcement in the School District. Similar situations have occurred locally in the city of Leesburg, FL. This is one of those situations that should be prohibited in a signed ethics policy by School District employees. The California School District should sue the administrator for all back pay while he worked at two jobs (or at least half of the salary for them, and half for the other District). I wonder if either school District, or even the local Lake County School District, have firm stated policies on the ability to sue for and recover payments made to someone who also worked somewhere else without disclosure. Do they have a policy requiring disclosure of ANY secondary or freelance job so it can be resolved at the beginning of the situation? vj From the San Gabriel Valley, CA Tribune... Read more →

Chicago Public School District $137,000 Payroll Check Fraud Reported

The article below describes how two Chicago area school administrators took advantage of a new payroll system and initiated higher than normal paychecks for several employees that totaled $137,000 in return for kickbacks. Apparently the IT department had not turned on a control routine in the new software and the administrators knew it. It took SEVEN months before a school principal noticed excess hours on one inflated check and reported it to internal audit for investigation. This breakdown in controls could have been prevented with simple control totals comparing authorized payroll totals to those on the checks, but apparently the staff didn't understand manual control processes that can be used as an alternative to computerized controls. Remember, Lake County, FL's School District recently had a situation where "someone" bypassed internal procedures to allow overpayments to several staff who had been moved or demoted to lower paid positions, but the "unauthorized" revisions to payroll continued to pay the employees at the older, higher rate. I don't believe that situation has yet to be resolved in public. vj from THIS Chicago SunTimes source 3 charged in payroll scheme CPS | 2 accused of creating $137,000 in phony checks September 13, 2008 BY... Read more →

New Washington DC School Supt. Shakes up the System

A few months ago, we reported here about a huge corruption scandal affecting the Washington, DC school district. That district has always been in the news, mostly about failed students and the system. But, a new School Sheriff is in town, and for the last year she has been stirring the post and fixing things. Washington DC has a "inner city" school district, which was always very political, and run by a long series of unsuccessful Chancellors. They even tried a retired military general. My mother worked in the Los Angeles City School District, which has the same "inner city" problem with discipline, thus many "yuppies" moved out of LA years ago to Orange County. The nearby San Fernando Valley residents tried to withdraw from the LA Unified School District and couldn't get the needed vote several years ago. The new DC Super is making some big changes, as described in the article link below, but here are some that affect fiscal management and have been TURNED down by Florida teacher unions: - merit pay - the local Lake County, FL teachers voted 2 to 1 against a recent State provided merit or bonus program for teachers who increased FCAT... Read more →

Florida 65% Education Spending Rule Subject to Variable Computations

Controversy is rising over a proposed Florida State Constitutional Amendment 9 that says every School District must spend at least 65% of its money on classroom instruction. Already, the Orlando Sentinel came out with an article today that used dubious math (in my opinion as a former auditor) to say most schools already spent 65% of their funds on classroom training. Below is both an AP article, and then the Orlando Sentinel article. The problem is that the method for calculating the 65% is up in the air, and subject to incorrect assumptions. It is clear in my reading that the Sentinel is calculating percentages based upon only part of the School budget - they don't seem to include costs for school building or debt interest payment, and maybe left out other cost as part the the "total" used as the base in the percentage calculation. I wrote the reporter, Vicki McClure, to ask for more details. However, according to the AP article, To figure this correctly, you have to go to the law, and see how it defines the components to get to the 65% target number. The Sentinel made no mention that they did so. But, most of... Read more →

Teacher Training Group Hammered by Inspector General Report

As I review articles on problems in K-12 systems, a pattern is emerging that "educators" and their programs lack any fiscal sense or skills. Here is an example where a "Teach for America" group with a $75-million Federally funded budget was lacking ANY records to substantiate HALF of the audited portion of the $75-million in funds they received for teaching classes, providing food, etc. There is NO excuse for this, and the program should be eliminated. If "Educators" do not even learn how to properly document taxpayer funded expenditures, then they should not receive any funds at all. Recently, I looked at the proposed curriculum for upcoming Principals for the Lake County School District, and there were hardly any learning objectives related to management of fiscal expenditures, controls, accounting methods, etc. That is one reason why educators keep failing to get much credibility from taxpayers when voting on spending requests. Educators have to step up and add strong fiscal and performance management skills to their learning objectives before they get to "manage" any staff or programs. Favorite quotes: Auditors say there was no documentation that any teachers actually attended and completed the class, or that there even was a class.... Read more →