{"id":640453,"date":"2026-07-24T01:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=640453"},"modified":"2026-07-24T01:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:45:00","slug":"waste-of-the-day-education-fraud-sweeps-nation-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=640453","title":{"rendered":"Waste Of The Day: Education Fraud Sweeps Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Waste Of The Day: Education Fraud Sweeps Nation<\/span><\/p>\n

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Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

Topline:<\/strong> Since 2019, school districts across 24 states and Puerto Rico have lost $225 million to fraud confirmed by the U.S. Department of Education inspector general’s semiannual report to Congress.<\/strong> No more than $67 million has been recovered.<\/p>\n

Key facts:<\/strong> Open the Books and the State Financial Officers Foundation documented<\/a> 74 instances of confirmed school fraud, averaging over $3 million each.<\/strong> There are far more that have gone unprosecuted or undetected.<\/p>\n

Florida and Illinois schools each had the most instances of fraud with 11.<\/p>\n

Indiana lost the most money – $44 million – due to inflated attendance numbers that increased state funding to two schools.<\/strong> The schools’ founder then allegedly sent the money to companies he owned. The schools closed in 2019, and four alleged conspirators were charged in 2024.<\/p>\n

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

At Broward County Public Schools in Florida, information officer Anthony Hunter allegedly used district funds to buy $17 million worth of school supplies from a friend’s business<\/strong>, ignoring the competitive bidding process. In return, the friend hired Hunter and his son to work a security job and sold Hunter a house for $150,000 below market value, state prosecutors claim<\/p>\n

Chicago Public Schools received $1 million of federal grants meant for Native American students, using an application that included more than 1,000 students of South Asian descent.<\/strong> The district was unable to verify how many students were actually in the program, and agreed to repay the money.<\/p>\n

Fraud arguably hits small school districts the hardest because they have fewer budgetary resources to begin with.<\/strong> When Janis Bucknor, former head of Community Preparatory Academy in California, admitted to stealing $3 million from the school over five years, it amounted to one-third of all the school’s state and federal funding.<\/p>\n

Bucknor spent $220,600 of the money on Disney vacations<\/strong> and also funded her internet shopping and private school tuition for her kids. She was sentenced to three years of home detention and ordered to repay the money.<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/strong> The government loses hundreds of billions of dollars to fraud annually, but redirecting money away from children’s education is especially egregious.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com<\/em><\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 07\/23\/2026 – 21:45<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waste Of The Day: Education Fraud Sweeps Nation Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations, Topline: Since 2019, school districts across 24 states and Puerto Rico have lost $225 million to fraud confirmed by the U.S. Department of Education inspector general’s semiannual report to Congress. No more than $67 million has been recovered. Key facts: Open… Continue reading Waste Of The Day: Education Fraud Sweeps Nation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":640436,"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":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-640453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640453","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=640453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/640436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=640453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=640453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=640453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}