Rep. Kriseman, Riptide's new favorite politician.

​A movement is growing in Tallahassee to reform the fraud and abuse-plagued McKay Scholarship program following a New Times exposé. Yesterday, state representative Rick Kriseman (D-St. Petersburg) took the boldest step yet, recommending specific and widespread changes that would address the program's most serious flaws.

In a letter to the chair of the Florida House's K-20 Innovation Subcommittee, Kriseman wrote: "It is my hope that none of us will ever have to read stories again about scammers and rip-off artists bilking precious dollars that should be spent on educating our most vulnerable children."

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What a difference three months makes. In July, after New Times published a feature exposing a disastrous lack of oversight in a $150-million-a-year taxpayer-funded voucher program for disabled kids, Florida Department of Education honcho Michael Kooi said this newspaper "should be ashamed" of its reporting.

Now, after getting grilled by House Representatives amid a growing number of high-ranking voices calling for change in the program, Kooi himself is joining the Florida Board of Education in recommending more oversight measures be added in the upcoming legislature.

The board is calling for more stringent background checks and basic audits to ensure that students are learning something. The measures don't address all of the programs flaws-- most notably the inability to pay any significant number of site visits to McKay schools-- but hey: baby steps.

Last week, Riptide was able to interview Kooi for the first time. Here's the transcript of our chat, edited for brevity.

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Choice Preparatory School was banned from sports competition last year after an investigator for the state athletic athletic association found no evidence of classes taking place there.

Its director has been involved in two schools found to have defrauded the Department of Education of funds earmarked for kids with disabilities. Hell, even South Florida Prep's former principal called it a "diploma mill".

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