Making My Blood Boil

WILynn · **WILynn**

This story has been going on for a little while now, and today's latest episode just has me really boiling.

State still paying troubled day care provider
Her license was revoked. She owes $103,000. But money is still coming.

By Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Sept. 18, 2009

Day care provider Latasha Jackson received $25,132 from the state this week, despite previous overpayments of more than $103,000. The state has revoked her license, but the payment was for care reported before the revocation.

Money Jackson Received

From 1999 to 2000
$29,674

From 2001 to 2002
$219,428

From 2003 to 2004
$520,479

From 2005 to 2006
$1,607,100

From 2007 to 2008
$256,613

Earlier in 2009
$355,576

***
Total
$2,988,872
***
Then on Tuesday
$25,132

State regulators pumped $25,132 more in taxpayer money this week into the pockets of Latasha Jackson, the day care provider who bought a Jaguar convertible and built a million-dollar mansion in Menomonee Falls - all while officials ignored red flags that she was conning the system for more than a decade.

The payment was made Tuesday despite the fact that regulators already are scrambling to recoup more than $103,000 they admittedly overpaid her during a recent four-month period.

Jackson was the subject of a Journal Sentinel investigation and story published Aug. 30 that exposed how the 32-year-old mother of three received nearly $3 million in public funding from the troubled Wisconsin Shares program while authorities repeatedly disregarded her extensive violations, history of lying and even their own investigators' outright proof of fraud.

The state revoked Jackson's license to run Kiddie Springs Child Development Center only upon learning the newspaper was about to publish a story and only after Jackson turned herself in. Jackson reported herself to the state a day after being confronted by a reporter. Authorities now are reviewing additional records from Jackson's center, and the Milwaukee County sheriff's office has launched a criminal investigation.

State and Milwaukee County regulators refused Thursday to release the name of the person who authorized the latest payment.

"There's no impropriety there," said Laurice Lincoln, administrative coordinator for child care for Milwaukee County "They didn't do anything wrong."

This week's payment was for child care that Jackson reportedly provided the week before her license was revoked, said Angela Russell, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families.

A new computer program launched on Monday would have prevented the payment, Russell said. But because the dates of care were for August, Jackson's case fell under the old system. As it was, there was no red flag to stop the payment, she said.

"This is what we're trying to fix," she said. "If it happened as of this week, we would be able to click a button and she would not have gotten anything," she said.

Russell also blamed the problem, in part, on Milwaukee County and said if workers there had entered the $103,000 overpayment into the computer system sooner, the state would at least have been able to keep 50% of Tuesday's payment.

Reggie Bicha, secretary of the department, was in Washington, D.C., for a meeting and not available for comment, Russell said.
Violations, citations

Jackson racked up more than 150 violations at her centers over the years and was repeatedly cited for not keeping accurate attendance reports and at times billing for children not actually in her care. The Journal Sentinel found she was running what police and regulators refer to as a child-care ring - adding parents with many children to her payroll for the sole purpose of listing their children as being enrolled in the center.

Jackson has appealed her license revocation and the overpayment calculation. No hearing dates have been set. She declined to comment other than to say, "You will soon see what's going to happen."

She referred questions to her attorney, Rodney Cubbie.

Cubbie, too, declined to comment.

Tuesday was not the first time authorities who run the Wisconsin Shares program have continued to qualify parents and pay providers despite widespread publicity that they have scammed the system and that they are under criminal investigation. In May, a county worker in Racine authorized child care assistance so a convicted cocaine dealer could work in a day care center. The newspaper also wrote a few months earlier about the woman, Katria Wright, revealing how she had conned the system and later about how the district attorney was investigating her case.

In an ongoing series "Cashing in on Kids," the Journal Sentinel has been writing since January about troubles within the $350 million Wisconsin Shares program, exposing how parents and child care providers easily cheat the system and how regulators allow it.

The program was launched in 1997 to help low-income parents get and keep jobs by covering the cost of child care. Roughly 35,000 families receive assistance from the program every month.

Since the series began, lawmakers have introduced and passed new legislation making it easier to shut down fraudulent providers and hold them accountable for money they received improperly. State regulators have enacted new rules. Last week, law enforcement officials and prosecutors at all levels of government teamed up to create an anti-fraud task force dedicated to the child care subsidy program. Also last week, two providers exposed in the newspaper's series were indicted on federal fraud charges.

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Brianzz · **Brianzz**

Well, I guess we all need to move to WI, they're just giving money away
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W2G free since 1976
It's better to be out playing the slots than sitting at home wondering if they're hitting.

Stew · **Stew**

And we're asked to want everyone to change to Gov't Health care?
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Stew the frog...Formerly Prince.

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LunaToon · **LunaToon**

It always amazes me how people give away money that isn't theirs. No oversight, so checks and blances, just here's your money. I am SURE when we start having to send our goverment out health care premiums, all of the money will be strenuously accounted for. I am sure of it, aren't you??

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