Learning Funds “Dangled” to Home School Parents to Entice Enrollment?
Just Another Teacher Union Lie
Every story attacking Epic Charter School recounted the $800 to $1000 learning fund that was said to be “dangled” in front of the parents to entice them to sign up their kids. One story was told of a father with twelve kids receiving $8800 and it was obvious that the story intended a vision of cash being stuffed in a pocket.
The reality is quite different. First Epic is the only charter school that sets aside about 20% of the state funds they receive to give back to the student through the learning fund. The learning fund has a number of restrictions including that all purchases have to have educational value, an extra curriculum, extra curricular activities such as sports or fine arts, or educational technology. The do not hand out cash or checks, the students provide the invoice from the pre approved vendor and Epic writes the vendor a check. The students cannot be in truancy with the school and must be enrolled for the upcoming year if the funds are used.
Any items purchased remain the property of Epic, not the family or student. Consumables of course do not need returned or curriculum, but any computer or other physical item remains school property. Items commonly bought are books, internet access, chemistry sets, flash cards, software, or hardware like a laptop or printer. The money cannot be used for museums, theme parks, or membership/entry fees. Epic has a list of approved vendors and when requested they issue a purchase order that the student presents to the vendor which allows the vendor to be paid by Epic.
The learning fund isn't used for other educational expenses, no money is paid to parents, students, or teachers from the fund as all items must be purchased directly by Epic, no faith based materials can be purchased nor can any of the vendors be associated with a church or any other religious organization. The fund cannot be used for musical instruments, exercise equipment, or furniture or other large items.
All of this is on the Epic website had any of the “journalists” cared to check the veracity of Tommy Johnson's lies on the affidavit. But as a cross check we reached out to a former board member of NOAH, Northeast Oklahoma Association of Homeschools which provides competitive sports for homeschooled kids between four years and through varsity high school. NOAH is one of the Epic approved vendors, generally $200 per athlete, with all money paid directly to NOAH for each kid that signs up and uses the sports service.
The teams compete with other public and private schools around the state including Junior Rodeo in Western Oklahoma. Other opportunities like fine arts and other enrichment programs help with socializing the homeschool kids and make the charter schools more of a viable option for families.
Now Epic operates on a fraction of what the public schools receive. Generally around $5000 per year for Epic compared to over $12,000 spent on a public school student. And yet Epic teachers make much, much, more per year as long as the teachers get the students to succeed and with Epic allowing the parents of the student to direct $1000 or 20% of the money the state provides per student. This of course infuriates the public school teacher unions, incentive pay and allowing parents to guide both curriculum and spending? Heretics must be in control and the students don't get indoctrinated....burn them, burn their school.
The other big lie told by Tommy Johnson and David Prater is that kids remained on the school rolls even after they had re enrolled in other schools. All charter schools have a truancy clause, at Epic each student is required to turn in 40 assignments per quarter. At 31 assignments per quarter they are automatically withdrawn from Epic. All charter schools report withdrawn students and all charter school students are compared with a state list of students to prevent fraud.
Another huge lie by Prater and Tommy Johnson was the so called “ghost students”, where homeschooled kids were supposedly encouraged to sign up to get the learning fund bonus, which we already proved was a lie. Oklahoma's rules on homeschooling are quite lax. Sure there is a 180 day requirement, six hours a day, and you are supposed to have a learning plan in place and keep attendance records just in case your kid transfers back to a public school. But you truly need to do nothing other than inform the local school that your kids will be homeschooled. There is no enrollment, no application, at most you might be asked to sign a statement from the school accepting responsibility for the kid's education. Literally it is impossible to be “enrolled” in homeschooling and break a law by enrolling with Epic. There are no hour requirements at charter schools under Oklahoma law, the accountability is done through regular testing, the same testing that public schools do with the kids. There is a requirement to turn in the assignments, 40 per quarter. The kid has to pass the testing on a regular basis and has a teacher that watches and corrects the lesson plan if the kid is getting behind.
The other lie is that kids are enrolled in private schools and enrolled in Epic. If that were the case then the kid would be doing twice the work and must attend the private school each of the 180 days of the school year or get reported to the local D.A. for truancy. And that kid would be turning in the required 40 assignments per quarter as well as meeting with the teacher when required. All for what? $1000 in the learning fund that can only be used to buy from approved vendors? And supposing this actually happened, there is no double dipping, no public money goes to the private school. In fact, the state department of education has a constant problem with public schools refusing to diss-enroll kids when the families move so that two school systems don't get paid the state money for the same kid.
Bottom line, there is no law against kids being inrolled in private school and a charter school. Nor is there a law that says a public school student cannot attend a private school after hours and plenty of them do just that. Nor is there any law stating that a homeschool kid cannot attend a private school and do homeschooling at the same time or use one of the many private tutoring companies. All that matters is that the laws are followed and Prater and Lying Thompson know this all to well.
And when these schools do get caught, no one is arrested or fined, the state just stops paying the double payment after investigating and determining where the kid is going to school.
