The founder and headmaster of a charter school in St. Louis admitted to skimming $2.4 million in public funding by inflating enrollment.
This is to be expected when private companies obtain public money without accountability or transparency.
The former head of a failed charter school has pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges in a scheme that cost taxpayers $2.4 million.
Michael Malone, who founded St. Louis College Prep, inflated attendance numbers for years as a way to collect more government funding for the struggling school.
“What the former headmaster did through his deception, repeatedly over many years, was take advantage of the Missouri taxpayers, while obtaining an unfair advantage over the St. Louis Public Schools and other area charter schools,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Jeff Jensen said in a news release. “This was not a mistake. Evidence proved Michael Malone’s actions were intentional and, unfortunately he got away with it for years.”
Malone, 44, opened the school in 2011 and served as headmaster until November 2018, when he resigned after an internal review and an investigation by Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway showed he was cooking the books. The school closed in 2019.
As a charter school, St. Louis College Prep was funded through the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The funding is calculated through daily attendance records, and Malone routinely jacked up those numbers to increase funding. At times, those numbers exceeded even the total enrollment by as much as 124 percent…
The fraud meant money that rightfully would have gone to St. Louis Public Schools went to the charter school to educate phantom students, authorities say.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
. . . so disheartening to read this. CBK
It’s the charter crime of the week. Stay tuned for next week’s charter crime!
LeftCoast Thank you. I feel a bit better now, though my heart sinks every time I hear of such things. It was the same when I was teaching and a WORKING TEACHER plagiarized her final paper. CBK
Malone should have to make restitution to the public schools. If it means he has to liquidate his business, too bad for him. Why should public school students have to endure cut after, cut and loss after loss while dishonest charter operators and lax accountability allow it to happen repeatedly?
Michael Malone will, for the most, probably walk on this deal. He probably has most of the $2.4M locked up in an off shore account that cannot be touch. Maybe a couple years in prison while his family lives well off this greed. People like this do not care about the damage they do to others. I often wonder how many charter school leaders have accomplished the same thing as Malone, how much they have stolen from the taxpayers, what if any restitution and prison time they did, and how much damage they have done to the students they claimed to be serving. There are things that should be done to these people that cannot put in print.
From Don the Con’s acceptance speech last night:
“Biden also vowed to oppose school choice and close all charter schools, ripping away the ladder of opportunity for Black and Hispanic children. In a second term I will expand charter schools and provide school choice to every family in America.”
This, ofc, from the guy who brought you Trump “University”
Did I miss the bit in which Biden vowed to “close all charter schools”?
Trump the liar, lying.
Trump is a liar’s liar which makes it worse. Trump would not knew the truth even if it slapped in his orange face.
Psychopaths distort reality. That’s what distinguishes a psychopath from a sociopath. To Trump, reality is whatever Trump wishes it to be at a given moment.
I wrote a thank you to author robert patrick…..and included some history for him to let him know how intensely some of us feel…….
From the December 8, 2005 Post-Dispatch:
The St. Louis School Board and Superintendent Creg Williams didn’t even give Floyd Irons a slap on the wrist for the financial irregularities at Vashon High School. Instead, they cleared Mr. Irons, apologized to him for the bad publicity and gave the erroneous impression that prosecutors had exonerated him.
It was a stunning example of the lack of public accountability.
…the School Board has left a mistaken impression that Mr. Irons has been exonerated by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce. Jeannette Graviss, Ms. Joyce’s chief warrant officer, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that “the bookkeeping was so sloppy that there would be no way to determine if there was criminal behavior…. It is an exaggeration to say that the review exonerated anyone,” she added. “That is completely false.”
…Mr. Irons is a great basketball coach with political clout. Getting to the bottom of the financial irregularities at Vashon would have taken a lot of gumption and willingness to take the heat from angry Irons supporters. This board and this superintendent have demonstrated they don’t have it.
However….when Peter downs was elected to the board….an opponent of charter schools………
From july 13, 2006 Post-Dispatch:
…instead of dealing with these real and crucial issues, the St. Louis Board of Education spent this week plotting coups like the tin-horn governors of a banana republic. The board fired Floyd Irons, the most successful high school basketball coach in Missouri history, a man who was going to retire next year anyway, a man with a huge and loyal following than can now be expected to create more trouble for a district that hardly needs it.
…But the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s office said it found no reason to pursue criminal charges against Mr. Irons. Mr. Williams Tuesday reiterated his view that the case against Mr. Irons didn’t merit his dismissal. “It’s unfortunate that as superintendent I have to spend my time on issues that don’t have anything to do with academic achievement,” he said.
Creg Williams may be the St. Louis Public School’s last, best hope to regain accreditation and avoid state takeover. If that happens, the teachers union, and its proxies on the school board, may come to regret their actions
Filed Friday, August 18, 2006 at 2:04 PM
Early this morning, Timothy Bacon was shot and killed while he was on his way for cigarettes. According to a story by Bill Bryan on STLToday.com, he was shot by three men — one of whom came back to the body to fire several more shots.
Bacon, 21, was the young man who, according to the Missouri Division of Family Services, was badly beaten by then-Vashon basketball coach Floyd Irons in 2000 and whose case was recently brought up by St. Louis School Board President Veronica O’Brien, who called for a federal investigation into the matter.
Board Hires Security for O’Brien
By Antonio D. French
PUB DEF EXCLUSIVE
In a closed-door meeting on Friday, the St. Louis Board of Education voted to pay for a private firm to provide security for board president Veronica O’Brien.
O’Brien has been the target in recent weeks of several protests at her home. Earlier this month a city judge denied the board president a restraining order against fired Vashon basketball coach Floyd Irons and his friend and supporter, Demetrious Johnson.
Last week, a young man who, according to the Missouri Division of Family Services, was badly beaten by then-Coach Irons in 2000 was murdered by three gunmen. O’Brien had recently called for a federal investigation into the beating and a lawsuit was to be filed this week against Irons and St. Louis Public Schools.
Unless I missed it, neither the St. Louis Post Dispatch nor KWMU St. Louis Public Radio covered the FBI raids on the headquarters of the Concept School Charter chain [Gulen] of which St. Louis has three charter schools, the Gateway Science Academies. St. Louis does not have a free press, unfortunately. If the FBI had raided the headquarters of the St. Louis Public Schools, the Post Dispatch and KWMU would have generated a media firestorm.
Joe, Thanks for the detailed history of the power of “successful coach” to scam everyone. I do think that these frauds ought to have monetary consequences with money from falsified enrollments returned to public schools.
Excellent story by the St. Louis BizJournal about the fraud- quoted the Attorney General’s office.
“…each increase in funding for S.L. College Prep meant a decrease in funding for St. Louis public schools.”
To men like Charles Koch and Bill Gates, theft of community money means nothing. It serves their libertarian purpose of dismantling common goods.
Michael Malone, interviewed in his alma mater’s newspaper (the school “educates….with a blend of learning and Christian faith…”)
“By God’s grace, a grant from the Walton Family Foundation…”, enabled him to start South City Prep, forerunner of St. Louis College Prep. “We really trusted God to provide for us..”.(while he launched the charter school).
so god = waltons?
Sinclair Lewis warned that enslavement to capitalism is a fascist tenet. Just as the GOP hijacked patriotism, Paul Weyrich highjacked God.
His training manual calling for parallel schools to destroy public schools is posted at Theocracy Watch. Both the GOP and the religious right are driven by personal financial gain and power that is built on the destruction of liberals, women and people of color.
If not for religion, America would be a humane country like the 10 highest ranked nations for female equality- all in Western Europe- my opinion.
The Walton family enabled Michael Malone- the odds that The 74 will report on his failure, which was very costly to the community.
I discovered your linkwas to the riverfront times……that is good, but I mentioned the post dispatch writer—because it shocked me that the pd would say anything negative about a charter school. Not sure who wrote what, first….just glad they did.