Governor Stitt had a libertarian theory. If you give out government money to families for education, they know what’s best. Turns out, some do and some don’t.
Jennifer Palmer of Oklahoma Watch and The Frontier wrote:
Just get the money to families. That was the driving force behind Gov. Kevin Stitt’s plan for $18 million in U.S. Department of Education relief dollars intended to help students during the coronavirus pandemic.
Other states used federal money to train new teachers or support programs for deaf and blind students. But in Oklahoma, a history teacher with political ambitions helped a Florida tech company win a no-bid state contract to rapidly distribute $8 million to families with little government oversight. Another $10 million went to private school vouchers.
With few guardrails, some families used Oklahoma’s share of federal Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Funds to buy Christmas trees, gaming consoles, electric fireplaces and outdoor grills, an investigation by Oklahoma Watch and The Frontier has found.
Months later the teacher, Ryan Walters, was on a national stage as Stitt’s new Secretary of Education, calling the effort a success.
Oklahoma’s contract with the Florida-based software company ClassWallet allowed families to quickly purchase educational supplies online through grants funded with federal relief money through the Bridge the Gap Digital Wallet program. At a virtual conference for a national school reform group in 2020, Walters touted the Bridge the Gap program as a model for how to start a school voucher program with “minimum staffing requirements and maximum quality control.”
“We didn’t have the government agency personnel with the background experience to do this and, quite frankly, we felt like there could be a more efficient way to do this outside our government agencies,” Walters said.
From the start, the strategy led to a lack of oversight on purchases, possibly violating the terms of the federal grant and state purchasing requirements, according to federal regulators.
While most parents spent the money on educational supplies, Oklahoma Watchand The Frontier found nearly half a million dollars in questionable purchases. The news organizations found at least 548 TVs purchased through ClassWallet worth $191,000.
Families also bought pressure washers, car stereo equipment, coffee makers, exercise gear and smart watches.
Isn’t a power washer a school supply?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sounds like Sitts was actually trying to “BUY VOTES!”
This shows how absurdly dumb and reckless so-called education savings accounts, aka, ESAs are.
ESA=Education Stealing Account
exactly said
“in 2020, Walters touted the Bridge the Gap program as a model for how to start a school voucher program with “minimum staffing requirements and maximum quality control.”
Typical ed reform hype. It’s all cheerleading and exaggeration. All the voucher programs are super duper excellent. Just ask the marketing team. When it turns out not to be true? Bury it. They’re on to the next gimmick, which will also be oversold and hyped beyond belief.
You will not find a single criticism of any voucher program on any ed reform site or by any high profile, paid ed reformer. That discussion simply does not happen in the echo chamber. You will find granular, exhaustive, exclusively negative analysis on public schools! But if it’s an ed reform privatization initiative there is LOCKSTEP support with no real analysis or questions. Echo chamber.
Here’s an evil “gimmick” that is really a financial product from the Trump administration. It allows a third party, not even necessarily a doctor, to hijack your Medicare without your consent or knowledge. It is called Medicare Direct Contracting, and it is direct theft of the common good. People should flood Xavier Becerra with complaints. https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/585103-the-biggest-threat-to-medicare-youve-never-even-heard-of/
Thank you for alerting us to the Medicare DCE (now renamed ACO REACH) by the Biden administration in February.
Medicare Direct Contracting, by whatever name it goes by, basically inserts a banker in the examination room. Under the DC/ACO REACH model, for-profit entities like private equity groups, can contract with Medicare to oversee YOUR medical care.
People over 65 tend to have higher medical bills, and were deemed so uninsurable that Congress passed, and LBJ signed, Medicare into law.
So this begs the question: Why would Wall Street and profitable health insurance companies by so eager to serve such an expensive client base?
Perhaps it might be THIS sweetener: DC/ACO REACH entities are allowed to keep UP TO 40 PERCENT of what Medicare pays them annually for PROFITS AND OVERHEAD. This is a much sweeter deal than even Medicare $camVantage.
While we’d like to blame Trump for this nefarious scheme, #45 would not have been able to hatch and execute this nefarious scheme had it not been for a provision in the ACA. Joe Biden, for unknown reasons, is letting this program continue.
President Biden had an opportunity to disband this privatization plan of traditional Medicare when he was sworn in last year. Instead, his administration is digging in their heels.They have brought Liz Fowler (who worked with Senator Max Baucus to make sure the ACA would not include a public option) on board to advance DCE/ACO REACH. Fowler, who spins through the revolving door between government and the private health insurance sector, has announced that EVERYONE in traditional Medicare will be in an ACO REACH by 2030.
Physicians for a National Health Program (pnhp.org) has done an excellent job alerting the public about this. Please consider signing and sharing their petition.
Thanks, RT and Eleanor!
You are correct, Eleanor. The original intention came from the ACA, but the specifics with dreadful details came from the Trump administration. It is another tool to privatize the common good.
One really has to read within the ed reform echo chamber to get a sense of how little attention or effort they give public schools and public school students.
This article is “about” the speech codes that have gone into effect in many states. The speech codes directly effect thousands of public schools and public school students. But they’re never mentioned in the analysis. The only focus is how this can be used to promote private and charter schools. Public school students are just not part of this “movement”, except as they may or may not be useful to promote or expand privatization.
They simpy don’t serve public schools or public school students, and they absolutely dominate education policy. Is it any wonder they haven’t delivered anything of practical value for our schools or students? It was never about them. Public school students exist in this world only as a political lever to be used to promote the privatization agenda. It is NEVER about them. They’re often completely omitted.
https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/republicans-are-peddling-speech-codes-when-they-should-focus-school-choice
“Republicans apparently see the embrace of censorship in schools as a ticket back to power in Washington”
What about the public schools and students subject to the speech codes, you might be wondering? Any concern or analysis in ed reform about them? Anyone looking at that?
Nope. The one and only issue is the pursuit of privatization. More charters. More vouchers. The one and only question is “how do we advance our agenda?” Millions of public schools and public schools now subject to elaborate speech codes and new reporting requirements? No interest.
Here’s what’s happening at actual public school to real public school students as a result of the speech codes:
“One high schooler has described how a lecture on the 3/5ths Compromise left most of the class confused because the teacher was unwilling to explain its purpose.”
Not a concern in ed reform. Not even worthy of dicussion or anaylsis by people who are (supposedly) employed full time in “education”. Why? Because these laws affect PUBLIC school students. Not an area of interest to the “movement”.
Maybe after school they can Google the 3/5ths Compromise, but they won’t be able to write about or discuss what they find in school, because that violates the speech codes.
Barbeque grill? Home Ec. Television? For watching Khan Academy videos. Power washer? Gotta keep my kid’s school (house) clean…
Listed are items purchased that cost over one hundred dollars. Let’s examine what can be bought using a debit card for under a hundred bucks: alcohol, cigarettes, pills, admission to adults-only shows, adults-only subscriptions, adults-only apparel and novelty items, Governor Stitt…
Governor Stitt!
ROFLMAO!!!
The district where I taught for 30 years bought power washers for its schools. The mess some of the students left behind each year took a lot of work to clean inside the rooms and outside on the concrete walkways. Each summer the custodians worked all 10 weeks using power washers to assist them in getting the gum out of the carpets and concrete. Since the district had a no gum rule, there shouldn’t have been any.
Now we learn that when there are no rules, its a lot more costly and wasteful. When there are no rules, the legal opportunity to get something for nothing attracts varmints and vermin similar to the Trump crime family.
The Trump Crime Family
Exactly. And they keep getting away with it. The U.S. has two legal systems, one for the wealthy and another for you and me, Lloyd.