Funds recovered from the prosecution of a charter school fraud scheme that took millions in public school money will be provided to the San Diego County Office of Education to support K-12 students countywide.
The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office is providing $25 million to implement the SDCOE HeartSpire initiative, a seven-year plan to expand student and family access to mental health, safety, wellness and educational resources.
The funds are being provided following recent San Diego County Board of Supervisors approval.
The money stems from fines imposed in a criminal case regarding a series of “A3 charter schools” in San Diego County and elsewhere across the state, which collected state funds by alleging students were enrolled in programs run by the schools.
The District Attorney’s Office, which called the case “one of the nation’s largest fraud schemes targeting taxpayer dollars intended for primary education,” said defendants paid for student information and used the info to enroll children in summer school programs at their online campuses. Prosecutors say some parents were unaware their children were enrolled in a charter school at all.
The schools earned as much as $4,000 per student despite not providing full educational services, with the defendants transferring millions of those funds to private companies they owned, according to the DA’s Office.
Along with sentences against 11 people involved in the scheme, more than $280 million in stolen funds were recovered and a portion of the fines imposed in the case were earmarked for programs such as HeartSpire, “that directly serve the needs of kindergarten through 12th grade students in San Diego County.” the D.A.’s Office said.