Good report last week from the AP on the developing scandal around Epic Youth Services, the Oklahoma for-profit virtual charter school company that was previously slated to provide online education for the Pulaski County Special School District.
In an affidavit filed last week, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation alleged that the founders of Epic used “ghost students” to artificially inflate their enrollment numbers in order to embezzle state funds. The founders, David Chaney and Ben Harris, allegedly split illegal profits of more than $10 million.
In February, the Pulaski County district board voted to contract with Epic to provide online K-12 schooling. Epic would have raked in $6,700 in state money for each student enrolled in its virtual “school”; under the proposed deal, Epic would get 90 percent of the cash with the PCSSD nabbing a 10 percent cut.
Shortly after the proposed contract was announced, the Tulsa World reported that Epic was under investigation by state and federal law enforcement agencies. By April, the PCSSD board decided to bail on Epic.
Instead the PCSSD will proceed with the online education plan using a different company, the Utah-based Tech Trep Academy.