Three plead guilty to swindling state through charter schools
Family members inflated student and lunch figures, reaped $5 million
By HARVEY RICE , Houston Chronicle, April 18, 2005

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Three relatives pleaded guilty Monday to swindling at least $5 million from state and federal governments by inflating the enrollment and the number of free lunches served at the defunct Prepared Table Charter School.

The guilty pleas, in a case that tarnished the reputation of charter schools and inspired tougher laws governing their operation, come three weeks after the death of the accused mastermind, the Rev. Harold Wilcox.

Wilcox and three family members were accused of using the bank accounts of the Greater Progressive Baptist Church, where he was pastor, to launder fraud profits.

If the case had gone to trial next week as scheduled, the government would have presented proof that the defendants inflated the enrollment figures at the Prepared Table Charter School's three Houston-area campuses and used a sham catering company to overbill a federal lunch program for needy students, Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Annise said.

Annise said the scheme also included a contract to rent church property that overcharged the school by more than $250,000.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas accepted guilty pleas from Wilcox's wife, Louvicy Wilcox, 52; her daughter, Rochall Frank, 32; and Wilcox's brother, the Rev. Anthony Mosley, 40, also a pastor at the church.

In return for the guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to drop many of the 52 counts in the indictment.

Wilcox pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy count. Frank pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count and a money-laundering count, and Mosely pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and four money-laundering counts.

Atlas scheduled sentencing for July 1, when they will face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each conspiracy count and 20 years and a $500,000 fine, or twice the value of the property, on each money-laundering count.

All three remain free on $50,000 bail.

Louvicy Wilcox and her daughter pleaded guilty to involvement in the false enrollment reports to the Texas Education Agency, which made payments to the school based on the number of students.

Wilcox founded the first nonprofit Prepared Table charter school in 1999 and opened two additional campuses in the fall of 2000.

During its three years of operation, the school received about $2.56 million in federal funds and about $16.76 million from the state, according to the indictment.

A TEA audit found that the school was inflating enrollment, failed to produce enrollment figures and failed to account for at least $1.3 million during its first two years of operation.

harvey.rice@chron.com

Archives
Week of September 4 - 10, 2002

Motivation engenders education

Surely there is more important news to analyze than Andrea Georgsson's "Sounding Board" column, further assassinating the already thoroughly besmirched character of Rev. Harold Wilcox, the erstwhile founder and superintendent of Prepared Table Charter School, in Houston's only daily's August 25, 2002 edition. Nevertheless, for some reason, her unfounded opinions peeved me.

Georgsson, who joined the Houston Chronicle's Editorial Board in 1995 has distinguished herself with such articles as: "Education: what Blacks owe themselves," that began innocently reporting Houstonians' trip to Washington, D.C. to stand on the National Mall and demand reparations. Strangely, it failed to note that The National Black United Front's Kofi Tarharka, and other hard working groups worked hard to raise extra funds so that youths from the 'hood could take part in the historical event. Educational treks like that inspires our kids to pursue an education.
Certainly, I realize the focus of the article was to justify closing Prepared Table and further criminalize Rev. Wilcox. Thus, I should explain that (from a Black perspective), the most amazing thing about the Prepared Table fiasco, is that Wilcox was able to obtain whatever he needed to open a charter school in Texas and spend millions of taxpayers' dollars. We agree with Georgsson, who wrote: "A Black American that puts education first would not tolerate a Rev. Harold Wilcox and his pathetic Prepared Table Charter School in Houston." She also pondered how a man with no proof of a college degree could pay himself $250,000 to be its superintendent.
It definitely would be interesting to learn who gave Wilcox a license to steal, under the guise of educating Black children. The man not only had one well funded school, but three campuses that probably would still be doing business as usual if Wilcox hadn't gotten greedy and allegedly used state funding to upgrade his church. On the other hand, Prepared Table's failure to properly educate Black kids isn't the focus of my analysis this week. Instead, I'm more interested in Georgsson's education. Surely it didn't include Black History. No, on second thought, the San Antonio, Texas native apparently didn't take any history at all while attending the University of Texas in Austin.

Perhaps it was a misprint, or something that the Chronicle's Reader Representative James Campbell will correct, but Georgsson did write: "Meanwhile, Black Americans continue to suffer at least one lingering and devastating harm as the result of slavery."
Before I go any further, let me qualify that I'm very proud of how quickly freed slaves educated themselves. That's why I question Georgsson's ability to research an article, inasmuch as a history literate person would never conclude: "And it's one that Black people have the power to overcome immediately and on their own."
I kept reading, to see if Georgsson was going to redeem herself, but she kept writing from the premise that, "Not necessarily as individuals, but as a people, Black Americans approach education far too carelessly and haphazardly. Black Americans' less than-stellar record of education-as a group coming in consistently at or near the bottom of just about any academic performance measure-surely has its roots in slavery." Perhaps, Campbel will explain to Georgsson that older Black folks he knew often had degrees in law, pharmacy and even education, but due to discrimination, were forced to work at the Post Office, wait tables and etc., which actually paid more than jobs available to Black college grads.
Even so, as late as the 80s, Blacks were assured a fairly good job if they got a college degree, or even a high school diploma, therefore they were motivated to go to school. Motivation certainly engenders education and that's why most Black parents worked hard to make sure their children got one.

Even today, you hear athlete's parents admonishing them to get a degree, even when they're being offered multi-million dollar contracts to turn pro. Space won't allow us to prove that most Black people still believe education is the key to success, although it's becoming more obvious each day that a college degree does not assure gainful employment.
History records that African-Americans managed to get a very good education under impossible conditions before integration and they were able to compete against their Anglo counterparts in the job market very admirably until schools integrated. Furthermore, after integration, African-Americans (still motivated by the American Dream) held their own until public schools surreptitiously changed the way they educated kids.

There is a growing suspicion in Black America, that performance tests are Trojan horses, instituted to eliminate our children. The voucher controversy portends that the powers-that-be have no intentions of allowing us to educate our own in charter schools.
Busting Prepared Table wasn't just about Wilcox, because it's a matter of record that the Black community knows his game and rejected him twice when he ran against State Rep. Harold V. Dutton, Jr. Sorry to diss you Ms. Georgsson, but you must learn White history is considered education, while everything we do is Black History. In the future please don't swallow mainstream media propaganda whole without a little research, because AAN&I is obligated to challenge misinformation.

Incidentally, did anybody compare Prepared Table's test scores with other charter schools, HISD and/or other school districts? Education is big business and if charter schools become a cash cow, you know who will be milking it.

Truth is, AAN&I discovered long ago that the mainstream media covers Black America from the bottom up, rather than starting with our best and brightest. That's like interviewing the losers after a game, while ignoring the winners.
Conversely, the real joke is how Wilcox played those smart people controlling charter schools. Or are they playing us?

The Wilcox Family Ministries

Thursday, August 1, 2002
TEA asks state to close charter school

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HOUSTON (AP) -- Violations by a Houston charter school have led an official with the Texas Education Agency to ask the state to close the school.

An administrative law judge has described the Prepared Table Charter School's violations as "deliberate" and "very serious."

"The school is not successfully educating its students and has not dealt honestly with the Texas Education Agency," Chris Maska, a TEA hearing officer, said Wednesday in a statement. "The best interest of the students would be served by the revocation of the charter."

The fate of Prepared Table is now up to Paul Ballard, the chief investment officer of the state's Permanent School Fund. He was designated by state Education Commissioner Felipe Alanis to decide.

TEA spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe said Alanis recused himself from the case because he is too familiar with the case.

Prepared Table attorney Charles Gaston issued a statement Wednesday, but did not comment on the recommendation.

"I am mindful that this is not a final decision," Gaston wrote in his statement.

This is the first time the commissioner, or his designee, has had the authority to revoke charters. Before the last Legislature, the State Board of Education had that authority.

If Ballard agrees with Maska's recommendation, Prepared Table 's three campuses will be the first state charter school in the Houston area to have its charter forcibly revoked. Five charters in other parts of the state have been unwillingly revoked.

Maska's recommendation comes two weeks after TEA attorneys argued in a hearing that the school, among other things, had intentionally inflated student attendance figures to get more state funding.

Prepared Table is one of 181 state charter schools in Texas that receive state and federal funding, but are less regulated than other public schools. Many of Prepared Table's 1,500 students are minorities and come from low-income families.

TEA attorney Jim Thompson said he hopes a ruling on Prepared Table's fate will be made before Sept. 3, when the school was scheduled to start.

"We always felt that it was clear that the charter should be revoked," Thompson said in Thursday's Houston Chronicle.

Gaston has six days to reply to Maska's recommendation. Then TEA attorneys have four days to respond before Ballard can decide.

In the hearing, Gaston argued that the 3-year-old school should be given another chance under new leadership. Prepared Table officials have acknowledged making mistakes, but said they were not intentional.

The Rev. Harold Wilcox was superintendent of the school until April 30, when he resigned with a $235,000 buyout. Wilcox, who is also pastor of Greater Progressive Baptist Church, is under investigation by the U.S. attorney's office for the possible misuse of federal funds.

TEA officials have been threatening to close Prepared Table for more than a year, but have said the charter could not be revoked without due process.

TEA investigators testified at the hearing that the school was falsifying records, paying exorbitant administrative salaries and commingling public funds with church funds while not documenting how the money was spent.

Maska, in his statement, said evidence showed that the school "crossed the line between negligence and deliberate misrepresentation" in reporting student attendance figures.

Attendance figures are important because state funding is based on the average daily attendance of the students.

Academically, Maska said, low test scores showed the school was not successfully educating its students.

Church-run charter school may be booted out of Texas program
Church & State, Sep 2002

Education officials in Texas have pulled the plug on a church-run charter school that has been embroiled in scandal and financial mismanagement.

In mid July the Texas Education Agency (TEA) held a three-day hearing on the fate of the Prepared Table Charter School, an institution run by the Rev. Harold Wayne Wilcox of the Greater Progressive Tabernacle Baptist Church in Humble. The school, which has been in existence since 1998, has allegedly squandered millions in tax dollars.

On Aug. 16, TEA officials revoked the controversial school's state charter and its lucrative public funding.

Texas lawmakers approved a charter school law in 1997 but officials have been lax in overseeing the program. Nearly any group or individual who applied for a charter got one - along with public funding.

The Kingwood Observer reported that Wilcox appointed himself and church board members as school administrators. Classes were held in the church sanctuary, and the "school" began paying the church $68,000 per month in rent, courtesy of the taxpayers.

Within a few years, the church had purchased or rented several other properties to expand, even though these new charters had not been approved by the TEA. By the fall of 2000, reported the Observer, Prepared Table was receiving nearly $8 million per year from the state of Texas.

TEA officials eventually became suspicious over a series of cozy arrangements between the school and church members. A church member who owned a cleaning service that cleaned the schools received $140,000 per month. When Wilcox resigned from the school, he received a "buyout package" worth $235,000 from the board - which consisted of Wilcox, his wife and his wife's sister.

Wilcox, who does not have a college degree, paid himself $210,000 annually to run the school. He paid his wife $50,000 to act as his secretary. This year, only 23 percent of Prepared Table students at the main campus passed Texas' proficiency exam. The figure was even lower at another Prepared Table school -- 18 percent.

State officials also accused the school of inflating the number of students attending. The school claimed 2,500 students, but TEA officials said they could never confirm that more than 1,500 were enrolled.

Meanwhile, reports are circulating that the U.S. Attorney's Office is investigating Wilcox.

The Observer, which has covered the problems at Prepared Table in depth, editorialized in July, "[A]fter months and months and millions and millions of local, state and federal dollars being poured into the `school,' it turns out that the children are still failing, they can't pass TAAS [Texas' state proficiency exam], the police are regularly called to the campuses, and the superintendent has paid himself nearly $800,000 and his wife another $200,000 since the school opened in 1998. Your tax dollars have made millions of dollars worth of improvements to the church/school buildings (what we would call a real church/state separation issue) and the TEA won't or can't control the situation."

The scandal, along with other problems, has prompted Texas legislators to take a second look at charter schools. In heavily populated Harris County, the Houston Chronicle reported in June, only 13 of the county's 61 charter schools saw 85 percent of their students pass the state's proficiency exam, putting them far behind public schools in performance.

Americans United Board of Trustees member Charlotte Coffelt, a resident of Houston and a former principal of a public elementary school, commented on the scandal in the July 23 Houston Chronicle.

"Prepared Table Charter School should be a textbook case of what happens when individuals and organizations with no background in either managing a business or having successfully provided effective educational programs are given access to public monies," Coffelt warned. "Many millions were invested in this 'innovative' educational program, with dismal academic results and evidence of massive misuse of public money and falsification of public documents."

Copyright Americans United for Separation of Church and State Sep 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

IN THE CAPITAL
Church & State, Mar 2005

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'Faith-Based' Battle Begins Again In Congress

The new Congress has moved quickly to take up a bill advancing the Bush administration's much-touted "faith-based" initiative.

In mid February, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved the Job Training Act, which contains a provision allowing federal funds to be used by "faith-based" agencies that discriminate in hiring based on religion. The bill (H.R. 27) is likely to be ready tor consideration on the House floor early in March.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State criticized the panel for approving the bill.

"This bill forces taxpayers to subsidize religious discrimination in publicly funded job-training programs," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. "Some members of Congress, with the president's backing, are seeking to roll back vitally important civil rights protections. Everyone who cares about fairness in federal hiring should be concerned."

Americans United, working with a coalition of education, religious, civil liberties and other public interest groups, urged the full House to dump the "faith-based" provision from the jobs bill.

Copyright Americans United for Separation of Church and State Mar 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

Americans United
Special Report
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Americans United Exposes Congressional Leaders' Plan To Push Religious Right's Controversial Political Agenda
The Family Research Council, a Washington-based Religious Right group, held a closed-door "Washington Briefing" March 17-19, 2005. During the event, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) addressed attendees and pledged that Republican leaders in Congress would work to implement the Religious Right's controversial political agenda.

Americans United obtained a recording of DeLay's and Frist's comments. Americans United believes this recording underscores the growing power and influence of ultra-conservative fundamentalist organizations on our political system. AU released it to the media and public because the organization does not believe that powerful groups with controversial and narrow fundamentalist agendas that they seek to impose on all Americans should be permitted to plot and scheme in secret.

The Recording
(requires Real player)
(20mb)

The people speaking on this recording, in order of appearance, are:

Thursday, March 17
Connie Mackey, vice president for government affairs, Family Research Council
U.S. Sen. Bill First (R-Tenn.) [speaking via telephone]
Friday, March 18
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) [speaking in person]
Tony Perkins, president, Family Research Council
Both speeches took place during the Family Research Council's "Washington Briefing" at the Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C., March 17-19, 2005.