From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
A pastor who ran a private choice school in Milwaukee is facing federal counts of fraud and theft of federal funds.
Gregory Goner, 41, of Milwaukee was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury on four counts of theft of federal funds and one count of wire fraud. The theft counts carry a maximum of 10 years in prison and the fraud count 20 years.
His name is "Goner." You can't make this stuff up.
Gregory Goner is described in the Journal Sentinel as a pastor and "president and chief administrator of Excel Academy, which taught kindergarten through high school." Excel Academy received about $100,000 per year from the federal Department of Education between 2004 and 2010.
Employees of that school had previously sued Goner, saying they hadn't been paid. Goner allegedly used the federal grant money to, among other things, make down payments on real estate and lease cars for himself and his family.
It appears that the US Attorney and the FBI might have been putting the final touches on the indictment at the same time the Wisconsin State Senate Education Committee was meeting on Monday to discuss the expansion of school choice vouchers in Wisconsin. That's the program that takes money directly out of the budget of public schools and gives it to private schools, including religious schools. The committee held a hearing to consider an ALEC-written bill introduced by the ALEC's 2009 "Legislator of the Year", Senator Leah Vukmir. Vukmir is a Republican. SURPRISE!
Vukmir then introduced agonized parents with their special needs children who told horror stories about the lack of education their children receive in the public schools. The Senator has apparently hoodwinked these parents into believing that their children will be better off with a $13,500 voucher that they can spend at places like Excel Academy rather than having their child attend a public school which is obligated to provide an appropriate education regardless of cost.
The Progressive has an excellent recap of that committee meeting, where public education advocates pointed out that parents with private vouchers would also give up all their protections under federal law guaranteeing a free and appropriate education for their children. Parents praising the current public education system then testified about how the public school professionals saved their children's lives.
Incredibly, in the relatively small school voucher program that already exists in Wisconsin, Republican legislators have even resisted all attempts to make the private schools receiving public funds held to the same achievement standards as public schools.
My wife has been a special education teacher in Madison public schools for 22 years. I have a little knowledge of how things work. It's not perfect, but Wisconsin has an excellent reputation for top-notch special education programs. Parents of kids with special needs move their families here from other states just for the schools. My wife has interacted with these families every year, and it is shocking to hear some of the stories of how these families and their children were treated before moving to Wisconsin. It ranges from simple neglect: "We don't have the money," to ignorance: "There's nothing wrong with your son. He's just lazy," to borderline child abuse: ("We lock him in a closet when he acts up.")
Again, the Republican legislators of Wisconsin are doing their best to push a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. There is no level of despicable behavior to which the Republican legislators will not sink in their efforts to raid the public treasury for their rich sponsors. The reason they are going after public schools is simple. There's a lot of money there, money that should be going to educate children. But where there's money, there's ALEC, and there are people like Gregory Goner. Thieves, all of them. May they rot in .... jail.