{"id":633067,"date":"2026-07-10T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=633067"},"modified":"2026-07-10T00:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:05:00","slug":"socal-education-leaders-stole-nearly-20m-from-schools-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=633067","title":{"rendered":"SoCal Education Leaders Stole Nearly $20M From Schools; Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

SoCal Education Leaders Stole Nearly $20M From Schools; Report<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A new report has revealed that a pair of Southern California school leaders separately stole nearly $20 million from their schools in order to fund lavish personal lifestyles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to The New York Post,\u00a0<\/a>the report was co-authored by the State Financial Officers Foundation, a watchdog made up of state treasurers and auditors, and OpenTheBooks, a nonprofit focused on transparency in government spending.<\/p>\n

The cases of the two Southern California educators were among the most expensive examples of K-12 education fraud\u00a0documented nationwide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

“It’s for the kids.”<\/p>\n

Said every educrat, ever.https:\/\/t.co\/1XWVRTcWZS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Scott C. Johnston (@SJohnston60) July 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jorge Armando Contreras, the former fiscal services director for the\u00a0Magnolia Elementary School District\u00a0in Orange County, was charged with\u00a0altering school checks over several years<\/a>\u00a0to funnel $16.7 million into his personal accounts.<\/p>\n

Contreras\u00a0was spending the money<\/a>\u00a0on everything from a luxury home and a BMW to designer clothes and pricey tequila and federal investigators found stacks of cash stuffed into a mini-fridge and luxury designer bags at his home.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison in 2024 and order to pay $16.7 million in restitution to the Magnolia School District in Orange County.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another case highlighted in the report revealed that Janis Bucknor, the head of the Community Preparatory Academy charter school in Los Angeles, stole more than $3 million in taxpayer funds to cover travel, restaurants, shopping and private school tuition for her children.<\/p>\n

Bucknor also pleaded guilty to spending more than $220,600 on Disney cruise line vacations, theme park admissions, and other Disney-related expenses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to prosecutors,\u00a0Bucknor admitted in 2020 to stealing the funds<\/a>, and was\u00a0sentenced to three years\u2019 probation and ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution.<\/p>\n

In a statement\u00a0to Fox News Digital,\u00a0<\/a>State Financial Officers Foundation CEO OJ Oleka said:<\/p>\n

\n

All fraud is harmful, but defrauding education dollars meant to help kids learn and succeed is especially hideous. The findings in this report should alarm every family, teacher, and civic leader.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The California cases were part of nearly 90 cases identified by a coalition of auditors over the past six years involving\u00a0embezzlement<\/a>, phony invoices, inflated enrollment, bid-rigging and kickbacks, among other crimes.<\/p>\n

The report follows the Trump administration\u2019s promise to crack down on government waste,<\/strong> with Vice President JD Vance leading a nationwide \u201cWar on Fraud\u201d that has raised new questions about oversight of federal education spending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 07\/09\/2026 – 20:05<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SoCal Education Leaders Stole Nearly $20M From Schools; Report Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness, A new report has revealed that a pair of Southern California school leaders separately stole nearly $20 million from their schools in order to fund lavish personal lifestyles. According to The New York Post,\u00a0the report was co-authored by the… Continue reading SoCal Education Leaders Stole Nearly $20M From Schools; Report<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":633068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-633067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=633067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/633068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=633067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=633067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=633067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}