Law & Courts

Miami Schools Faced With Licensing Scam

By Karla Scoon Reid — September 20, 2005 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The superintendent of the Miami-Dade County schools is vowing to fire more than 750 teachers if they knowingly participated in an alleged scheme to present phony credits for recertification and license endorsements.

BRIC ARCHIVE

And Rudolph F. Crew is moving forward with plans to replace any dismissed teachers with New Orleans teachers who are jobless following Hurricane Katrina.

The licensing scam was allegedly run by a retired high school teacher, William L. McGoggle, who was indicted in July by a Miami-Dade County grand jury on charges of fraud and grand theft. He has pleaded not guilty.

Law enforcement officials say that Mr. McGoggle, dating back to at least 1997, set up companies to conduct courses for teachers seeking renewal of their teaching licenses or add-on endorsements to teach particular subjects. He allegedly then arranged for them to receive credit for their work from five colleges and universities in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

But teachers didn’t attend classes and received credit for work they either never completed or for courses that were never approved by the institution giving them the credit, according to the July 18 grand jury report, which discussed Mr. McGoggle’s relationship with Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton, Okla., from 2002 to 2003.

The grand jury report said 106 teachers and other district employees enrolled in classes offered by Mr. McGoggle’s company, called Move On Toward Education and Training, or MOTET. The grand jury maintains that Mr. McGoggle pocketed $250,000 from his venture.

Since the report was issued and Mr. McGoggle was arrested, another college has come forward to report that it had issued bogus credit to Miami-Dade County teachers.

The board of trustees of Otterbein College, in Westerville, Ohio, this month revoked credits issued to 657 people enrolled in MOTET courses, most of them apparently employed by the 355,000-student Florida district. The trustees’ investigation revealed that the college never signed a contract with Mr. McGoggle to operate the program. The Otterbein administrator who ran the program died of a heart attack last spring, days after the college’s relationship with MOTET became known.

William Campion, who resigned as the president of Eastern Oklahoma State in 2004, had arranged with MOTET to give academic credit without the knowledge of that college’s board of regents, said Hank Mooney, a college spokesman.

The college has refunded money paid by more than 100 teachers who signed up to take the MOTET classes, Mr. Mooney said.

‘Human Nature’

The Miami-Dade County district’s police detectives are interviewing the teachers identified by the state attorney’s office who took classes from Mr. McGoggle. The district also is trying to match the list of teachers who received credit from Otterbein College with its employee records.

Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade County state attorney’s office, said the teachers would not face criminal charges because recertification is an administrative issue. “It’s a large, ongoing investigation,” he said.

“We’re not sure if this scheme transformed over time from a semi-valid distance-learning program into a fraud scheme,” said Joseph Garcia, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade school system.

Mr. Crew, the superintendent, has called on the Florida Department of Education to conduct a joint investigation with the district.

In Florida, the state education department processes all endorsements that allow teachers to lead certain classes, such as drivers’ education. License renewals for teachers are processed mostly at the district level, but the state also accepts them.

Pam L. Stewart, the state’s deputy chancellor for K-12 educator quality, said there was little on paper to indicate that any of the Miami-Dade County teachers’ credits were questionable. She added that it was not clear how the department could change its processes to expose potential fraud.

The department investigates and takes action against employees who violate the state code of ethics, Ms. Stewart said, but what might be grounds to dismiss a teacher may not merit revoking the teacher’s license.

“We’re relying on human nature—someone to come forward and say, ‘This isn’t right,’ ” she said.

The grand jury report also criticized the school district’s review of teachers’ credentials, saying: “The teachers simply paid money and later received a transcript.”

The district since has established a new office to shore up its examination of teachers’ transcripts, Mr. Garcia said. Officials also will review the credentials of each of its 20,000 teachers when their licenses are up for renewal; about 4,100 teachers’ licenses and credentials will be reviewed annually.

“We’re doing what we can to tighten the loopholes in Miami,” Mr. Garcia said. “But this problem existed in Tallahassee, Oklahoma, and Ohio.”

Mr. Crew has sent letters to three more colleges and universities seeking their cooperation with the investigation into Mr. McGoggle’s business. One university has been closed since 1998.

Meanwhile, the district has contacted the U.S. Department of Education to join the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Garcia said the district is reaching out to real estate officials to provide housing for teachers seeking jobs with the Miami-Dade schools.

A version of this article appeared in the September 21, 2005 edition of Education Week as Miami Schools Faced With Licensing Scam

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
From Classrooms to Careers: How Schools and Districts Can Prepare Students for a Changing Workforce
Real careers start in school. Learn how Alton High built student-centered, job-aligned pathways.
Content provided by TNTP
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Law & Courts Trump Admin. Can Proceed With Ed. Dept. Layoffs, Supreme Court Rules
The Trump administration asked the justices to set aside an injunction blocking its layoffs of 1,400 Education Department employees.
6 min read
Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon outside of the West Wing following a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 11, 2025 in Washington.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon outside of the West Wing following a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 11, 2025, in Washington. McMahon is carrying out a Trump administration plan to lay off roughly 1,400 Education Department employees, a move critics say is aimed at dismantling the agency.
Lenin Nolly/NurPhoto via AP
Law & Courts Opinion How the Supreme Court Is Making Public Education Itself Unconstitutional
In a recent ruling, the high court took a step toward effectively outlawing public schools.
Johann Neem
5 min read
Photo illustration of Supreme Court building and U.S. Constitution.
Education Week + Getty
Law & Courts Supreme Court to Weigh State Laws Barring Transgender Athletes in Girls' Sports
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up transgender sports laws from Idaho and West Virginia, among the 27 states that have such laws.
5 min read
This artist sketch depicts Justice Amy Coney Barrett, from left, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as the Justices announce opinions at the Supreme Court in Washington, on June 27, 2025.
An artist sketch depicting Justice Amy Coney Barrett, from left, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as the Justices announce opinions at the Supreme Court in Washington, on June 27, 2025. The Supreme Court on July 3, 2025, announced it will hear cases challenging Idaho and West Virginia laws that bar transgender students from participating in girls’ or women’s school sports, stepping into a high-profile legal battle over transgender rights in schools.
Dana Verkouteren via AP
Law & Courts Appeals Court Backs Fla. Law Barring Transgender Teacher's Use of Her Pronouns
A federal court upheld Florida’s ban on K-12 teachers using pronouns that differ from their sex assigned at birth when speaking to students.
4 min read
A new billboard welcoming visitors to "Florida: The Sunshine 'Don't Say Gay or Trans' State," is seen on April 21, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. Florida's state government and LGBTQ+ advocates have settled a lawsuit challenging a law that bars teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.
A billboard welcoming visitors to "Florida: The Sunshine 'Don't Say Gay or Trans' State," is seen on April 21, 2022, in Orlando. The billboard was a commentary by an LGBTQ+ rights group on a controversial law backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis regarding the teaching of certain topics. A federal appeals court on July 2 refused to block a related law, one barring teachers from using pronouns or titles that don't match their sex assigned at birth.
John Raoux/AP