Through the looking glass and into DOE

How can Jeb Bush, DOE, the FBI, intelligent design and religious discrimination all find its way into the same story? Through this lawsuit recently filed in a Leon County circuit court.

As the St. Petersburg Times reported this morning, North Florida resident Karen "Kay" Stripling (on the left) filed suit after the DOE refused to pay her more than $200,000 for work she did helping high school dropouts obtain GEDs. According to the suit, DOE employees told state and federal investigators that Stripling mishandled federal money, which resulted in her being targeted in a federal investigation; threatened with indictment; and forced to spend her life savings to clear her name.

Where does religion come in? Stripling is an evangelical Christian who describes her company, Read & Lead – which relied on churches to refer students and provide classroom space - as "faith-based." The suit says DOE employees were gunning for faith-based companies in a "Bush witch hunt" (Bush, meaning Jeb Bush, and meaning companies that got their foot in the door because Jeb, following in the footsteps of his brother, paved the way for such companies to get government contracts.)

It also says that, thanks to a public records request this past February, Stripling found that DOE employees had inserted newspaper clippings in her file that, among other things, panned Bush's voucher program; lauded courses teaching homosexuality; and mocked intelligent design as teaching that "a thingy that may look like Santa Claus spent seven days creating everything you see."

Can there really be something to all this? In a January letter to then DOE general counsel Daniel Woodring, Stripling's lawyer, Ken Sukhia, writes, "One could not fall through the looking glass and find a more outlandish sequence of events." And interestingly enough, the FBI says the stuff in Stripling's suit is now part of a "wider investigation."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Comments

Badbob, get off you DOE computer and get back to work. Maybe the FBI will rummage through your computer as well.

The real story behind all of this is the threat state agencies feel when outside organizations provide services far superior to that of the agency itself. Especially when the agency has to fund those organizations.

It's prevalent in corrections and education. Bureaucrats, who only want to maintain the status quo, rail against faith-based programs. The hidden agenda is they don't want "outsiders" involved who threaten their funding or position.

So they fight against the programs and even try to passively sabotage them through benign neglect.

The future is being built on public-private partnerships and faith-based is going to play a stong role in helping provide services.

Those who resist it will simply be left in the dust.

[BadBob]

I would encourage ANYONE who writes a message in support of the plantiff in this lawsuit to hire her to do anything for you. Oh, but expect to be sued.

Did anyone bother to notify the people whose social security numbers were misplaced by DOE. Oh why bother, they were just some poor North FL hicks- why care about them?!
And what happened to the $200K that the DOE claims it advanced to this program- who actually got that money? Maybe that is what the FBI is investigating now- just follow the money, honey..........

[Freedom]

A person's FREEDOM was at stake!

How can a program that had this kind of success receive this kind of treatment from the Florida Department of Education? Here are two words to describe it: RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION! Do you think the University of Florida would allow the Florida Department of Education to misplace it's students' records and social security numbers? Do you think the University of South Florida would allow one of its professors to be falsely accused of fraud through the introduction of false evidence? Come on' this is AMERICA - people everywhere should be able to rely on government agencies to keep their records accurate and to admit it when employees have shredded documents. Surely, these administrators are not so egotistical as to continue to hold down the fort when their own emails show an internal breach of security that was allowed to run unabated. This is NEGLIGENT DEFAMATION. It is also GOVERNMENT ABUSE at its worst.

[teacher]

Ron Matus is on top of this story. There will be more details coming out - I betcha!