School residency cheaters investigated

[Anonymous]

Even if DC cracks down on residency cheaters down in a big way (very very unlikely), the overall problem will persist unless PG County introduces both free universal PreK3 AND PreK4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if DC cracks down on residency cheaters down in a big way (very very unlikely), the overall problem will persist unless PG County introduces both free universal PreK3 AND PreK4.

True. The fine will probably still be less than paying for PK in MD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this credible re: pools starting to charge fees? When was the announcement made? I think that PDF lists charges to rent facilities for events.

They will charge fees, but PG families will be able to get in for free.

Swimmers or scammers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What "evidence" of "other agendas" do you think you see?

Sounds like you're just trying to shoot the messenger.

The daily caller's obvious agenda which I won't bother to spell out for you.

Trying to obfuscate the story ? How's the weather out there in PG today?

Aww, look. The daily caller is paying Mr rosniak enough to paste his typical response in on a Sunday.

[Anonymous]

For years DC parents were putting their kids on PG schools on the borders of DC PG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For years DC parents were putting their kids on PG schools on the borders of DC PG.

I don't think that's true, but even if it is that doesn't give the right for people to steal spots in DC schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if DC cracks down on residency cheaters down in a big way (very very unlikely), the overall problem will persist unless PG County introduces both free universal PreK3 AND PreK4.

If we have such crossover with PG that 40% of some schools have kids that either live there or have complicated family situations where they live there part time, maybe DC should just put it above board, allow PG county residents with some DC connection to apply, and get reimbursement from the county instead of individuals.

[Anonymous]

Is there really evidence that it's poor people from MD stealing? Because that hasn't been my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there really evidence that it's poor people from MD stealing? Because that hasn't been my experience.

It doesn't look like any of the people featured in the Daily Caller articles are "poor." They have jobs, some in the public sector, have homes, and cars. Heck the KIPP PTA mom has a home and a rental property.

[Anonymous]

To me, the institutional failure and obvious lack of interest by DCPS in dealing with this problem seems like the problem to attack.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/

Arguing about this on a message board is not productive. So, given that OSSE seems to routinely ignore the tips that parents submit, what remedies are available to parents? Is a class action lawsuit a possibility? How do such things work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To me, the institutional failure and obvious lack of interest by DCPS in dealing with this problem seems like the problem to attack.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/

Arguing about this on a message board is not productive. So, given that OSSE seems to routinely ignore the tips that parents submit, what remedies are available to parents? Is a class action lawsuit a possibility? How do such things work?

OSSE released a report last year showing that they responded to almost all of the tips. Not sure where the opposite view is coming from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if DC cracks down on residency cheaters down in a big way (very very unlikely), the overall problem will persist unless PG County introduces both free universal PreK3 AND PreK4.

If we have such crossover with PG that 40% of some schools have kids that either live there or have complicated family situations where they live there part time, maybe DC should just put it above board, allow PG county residents with some DC connection to apply, and get reimbursement from the county instead of individuals.

Marin Bar.ry nice suggested that DC and PG might combine to form a state! Perhaps a good name for the union of Dysfunctinal City and Pervasive Graft County would have been the State of New Corruption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me, the institutional failure and obvious lack of interest by DCPS in dealing with this problem seems like the problem to attack.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/

Arguing about this on a message board is not productive. So, given that OSSE seems to routinely ignore the tips that parents submit, what remedies are available to parents? Is a class action lawsuit a possibility? How do such things work?

OSSE released a report last year showing that they responded to almost all of the tips. Not sure where the opposite view is coming from.

Apparently, the amount of information required to make an online tip is near impossible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me, the institutional failure and obvious lack of interest by DCPS in dealing with this problem seems like the problem to attack.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/

Arguing about this on a message board is not productive. So, given that OSSE seems to routinely ignore the tips that parents submit, what remedies are available to parents? Is a class action lawsuit a possibility? How do such things work?

OSSE released a report last year showing that they responded to almost all of the tips. Not sure where the opposite view is coming from.

So you didn't read the linked article. If you had, you'd see exactly where the opposite view is coming from. That's OK, I can summarize for you. The big issues I took from the article:

1. The online reporting mechanism is designed to fail, apparently quite purposefully, by asking a series of questions that people reporting fraud could not possibly know the answer to, such as the address used to verify residency and "LEA Name", whatever that is.

2. OSSE does not seem to record and report on all incoming tips. From the article:

Referring to phone tips, she [a tip line operator DCNF interviewed] said “we get them every day” — in addition to any online submissions — yet in a June 2015 report, the OSSE reported only 88 leads in the 2014-15 school year. That number included any tips from “OSSE residency fraud staff” and “partner agencies,” indicating that the school bureaucracy produced few leads on its own and simply looked into cases when parents had taken it upon themselves to do the legwork.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/#ixzz4E2lgIGxa

This strongly suggests to me that OSSE is not following up on tips.

3. Tips do not result in sanctions, which may be right, but the numbers suggest a problem to me. From the article:

Of the 88 tips, it imposed sanctions on only one family, and only then because the parent didn’t bother to take advantage of an appeals process. The parent, who had two children in a school, was fined $15,000 — less than the cost of one year for one child — but only $3,000 has been collected. The prior year, the government proved five cases out of 38 tips — 13 percent, compared to the most recent year’s 1 percent — and tried to impose retroactive tuition, but never collected most of the money.http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/#ixzz4E2mqQDTq

4. At least one charter school seems to be pretty openly flouting residency requirements. From the article:

In 2014, the Excel Academy Public Charter School administrator in charge of enrollment, Lela Johnson, admitted enrolling her daughter at the school for three years despite living in Maryland. After the admission, Johnson received a new job at the school — Executive Principal. An outside auditor found that only 196 of the school’s 618 students had proper residency documentation. Some students provided documents showing that their parents lived and paid taxes in Maryland, and the school accepted them anyway, the Washington Post reported. http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/#ixzz4E2nLAPfo

So, with that red herring dealt with, I ask again: what can we as parents do, given that OSSE seems complicit in this fraud?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there really evidence that it's poor people from MD stealing? Because that hasn't been my experience.

It doesn't look like any of the people featured in the Daily Caller articles are "poor." They have jobs, some in the public sector, have homes, and cars. Heck the KIPP PTA mom has a home and a rental property.

I checked the tax records and there's no property owned by someone with her name in DC. I guess it could be under her maiden name?