Those who monitor state government to hold it accountable keep an eye out for examples of slipshod work, unnecessary expenses, shirked duties, and officials using their positions to help political supporters. Thankfully, few problems rise to the level of out-and-out fraud.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to view the recent revelations in the Centralia School District as anything but fraud. After an investigation by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) at the Attorney General’s Office, which included testimony from 50 witnesses, the AG’s office concluded that school employees intentionally submitted false reimbursement claims to generate funds for the school.
The employees, at the behest of a middle school principal, took advantage of a Medicaid program that reimburses districts for time employees spend referring low-income students and their families to Medicaid. That principal sent an email to employees with the subject “Big Money! Big Money! Big Money!”, encouraging them to take advantage of the reimbursements. The AG’s office also found that the school district ignored a credible whistleblower who alerted them to problems, including “repeated and widespread efforts to discredit the former CSD employee.”
Now the district is paying $372,000 to settle the case after the AG’s office determined that school officials “knowingly filed scores of false time study forms to obtain MAC reimbursement payments it was not legally entitled to receive.”
First, I’d like to congratulate my former colleagues from the MFCU. They do great work protecting your state and federal tax dollars from abuse and waste. Their investigations are thorough, extensive and fair. The job they did on this investigation is proof once again that the MFCU’s budget is money well spent.
Second, this case illustrates the potential for our teacher and principal tenure laws to make it too difficult to fire employees who clearly should not be employed in our schools. As the Washington Policy Center notes, five district officials have left for jobs elsewhere, but the person most directly responsible, middle school principal Greg Domingos, remains on the job.
This is a clear-cut case. Domingos should be held accountable for his conduct. The district is conducting its own investigation, but its attorney notes, “Mr. Domingos has continuing contract protections since he’s worked for the district 3 years. Under case law the question now becomes ‘did his behavior impact his ability to perform his duties?’”
Usually we discuss tenure laws in terms of employee effectiveness and student learning, but there are other ways school employees can lose the public’s trust to instruct our kids. If tenure laws are a barrier to firing employees who commit fraud or other crimes during the work day and as part of their duties, then surely that is yet another sign that these rules need a serious overhaul. But that is the status quo today. We need a smarter approach, including commonsense tenure rules that don’t leave in place a principal who is an example to students and other employees that it’s OK to steal.
You shouldn’t have to pay the salary of someone who defrauded the state, nor should such a person be left in a position of authority in a school.
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Rob McKenna is the former Washington attorney general and gubernatorial candidate. He now operates Smarter Government Washington. Visit smartergovernmentwa.org for more information.
