Rick Scott filled the Florida Virtual School with trustees who got too close to the board's attorney. Ron DeSantis can do better with his appointments.
How did it come to this? Cronyism. A guy does a favor for another guy, who returns the favor.
If Gov. Ron DeSantis is looking for the next political swamp to drain, he should turn his attention to the Florida Virtual School’s leadership.
A months-long Orlando Sentinel investigation exposed the cronyism that oozed through the school’s leadership during former Gov. Rick Scott’s tenure, jeopardizing the reputation and success of a public institution that became a model for other online schools around the nation.
Too often, Scott appointed people to the board of trustees who already were, or later became, too cozy with the school’s former general counsel and chief administrative officer, Frank Kruppenbacher, one of Scott’s early and eager political supporters.
According to the Sentinel’s reporting, one of Scott’s appointees worked with Kruppenbacher on a political campaign and served with him on the board of a conservative think tank. That appointee, Robert Gidel, then sat on an investigation into Kruppenbacher for three months, admitting he wanted to protect the school and the employees, and “to protect Frank.”
Another Scott appointee reportedly said she got the post because her husband is friendly with Kruppenbacher. Another appointee worked for a company that used Kruppenbacher for legal work, and whom Kruppenbacher used as a reference when he was trying to get work with the Osceola County School Board. Yet another was a lobbyist at Orlando International Airport, where Kruppenbacher was chairman of the board.
Two board members at one point were represented by Kruppenbacher for traffic infractions, begging such questions as what is a high-powered attorney doing representing his bosses in traffic court. More to the point, why doesn’t the virtual school have a policy prohibiting its lawyer from representing trustees in matters unrelated to the school?
Predictably — in hindsight, at least — the school is in crisis. It’s reeling from employee complaints that Kruppenbacher bullied them, as well as an audit that determined Kruppenbacher “influenced who won some school business and circumvented procedures for giving out lucrative contracts,” according to the Sentinel report.
Now, three of the seven virtual school board seats are empty, and two of the remaining four members are marking time until DeSantis chooses replacements for them.
How did it come to this? Cronyism. A guy does a favor for another guy, who returns the favor.
Scott appointed people to oversee the school who got too close to one of the school’s key employees, who also happened to be a key Scott supporter — Kruppenbacher. That set the stage for lax oversight by board members, and the problems now facing the school.
None of this might matter to everyday people, except that there’s more than $180 million at stake — all of it public money.
Every dollar spent on one thing — like an investigation Kruppenbacher asked his future son-in-law to conduct for $3,500 — is a dollar not spent on running Florida Virtual School.
It seems hard to imagine that Scott couldn’t have found smart, competent people who understand the nature of a boss/employee relationship, who could supervise Kruppenbacher and evaluate his performance more objectively. (Turns out Kruppenbacher went seven years without a complete written evaluation, according to the Sentinel’s reporting.)
We’ve been struck by DeSantis’ willingness to shake things up in a constructive way, which is exactly what the virtual school needs. He seems interested in people not necessarily because they run in his political circles but because they know what they’re doing.
He’s been happy to shake up other boards, notably the South Florida Water Management District board, which Scott had stacked with pro-development interests. DeSantis emptied the district board and found people with a broad range of interests. He’s not afraid of competing viewpoints on appointed boards.
DeSantis needs people like that to get the Florida Virtual School back on track. While there’s no evidence thus far that the school’s instruction is suffering, it’s a matter of time before rot starts to extend outward.
There’s too much at stake to let that happen. The 22-year-old virtual school headquartered in Orlando serves more than 200,000 students.
Rick Scott owns the virtual school’s problems. The people in charge were his appointments.
Ron DeSantis has an opportunity here, another chance to show he can do better than his predecessor. Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jay Reddick, David Whitley, Shannon Green and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.