GiaQuinta: Republicans have to clean up their own mess

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta (D-Fort Wayne) today released the following statement regarding recent news that the State of Indiana will take legal action against fraudulent virtual charter schools:

“Though I’m relieved to see that punitive action is finally being taken against these corrupt schools, I’m disturbed that we are still cleaning up the mess that Statehouse Republicans made of our education system years ago. Because Republicans refused to set up the proper accountability measures to keep these virtual charter schools in check, millions of dollars were stolen from Indiana taxpayers.

“The Attorney General has done the right thing by filing a lawsuit that he said represents the largest amount of monetary damages ever sought by his office, but we shouldn’t forget that it was members of his own party who allowed these events to unfold. 

“For the past few years, House Democrats have proposed many commonsense solutions to prevent virtual school fraud. Several have not been met with the support needed from our colleagues across the aisle, but we will remain vigilant in our pursuit to provide safeguards against this gross misuse of funding so these abuses can be prevented in the future.”