KIYU NEWSROOM
IDEA International goes to court in
dispute over home schooling contract
9-22-06
Tim Bodony (KIYU)
The Galena City School District’s IDEA International has gone to court, in its continuing fight to retain a Defense Department home schooling contract.
Last month, the Defense Department’s education office selected a new contractor to offer home schooling to military families around the Pacific. A Florida-based consulting firm, I-CATT, is the primary contractor, and a Montana-based distance education firm would serve as a subcontractor. The Montana company, World Wide Independent Distance Education of America, or World Wide IDEA, has former Galena schools superintendent Carl Knudsen as its President.
The Government Accountability Office is reviewing the DoD’s decision to select I-CATT and World Wide IDEA as the new provider, after the Galena school district filed a formal protest alleging various rules violations.
"The normal process when a protest is filed is that all money stops and the incumbent continues to provide service until there is resolution," explains IDEA International Executive Director Tim Cline.
"There are circumstances whereby DoDEA can override a stay of award, but the window for overriding is very narrow and is usually includes things like national security."
The I-CATT and World Wide IDEA partnership got such an exemption, signed by the Dr. Joe Tafoya, the Director of the Defense Department’s education activities. That allowed I-CATT/WWIDEA to receive the first installment of federal funding, and World Wide IDEA began to recruit teachers and, through its website, asked the military families to submit contact information and begin the transition to the new provider.
IDEA International saw those actions as premature and went to court last week to stop it.
With the Defense Department’s education office as the defendant, and IDEA International as the plaintiff, the dispute went in front of Court of Federal Claims judge Thomas Wheeler. Cline says that IDEA International’s lawyer challenged the Defense Department’s decision to let World Wide IDEA start offering services under the contract.
"It was our belief that that was a misuse of the override rule, and in fact the judge ruled that their argument was 'woefully inadequate', and it was not in [defense of] national security or best interest of America that this move forward."
But today, the situation has changed again. Going back to Judge Wheeler on Thursday, the Defense Department’s education office made a different argument on why World Wide IDEA could be allowed to administer the contract immediately, and the Judge agreed.
The World Wide IDEA website now has an announcement, posted today (Friday), stating that they are allowed to move forward, and laying out a timeline for enrolling and working with new families.
On a separate track, the Government Accountability Office has a lawyer assigned to the original bid protest, filed in late August, and will make a decision no later than December 6th.
Tim Cline estimates that IDEA International would have generated 500
thousand dollars through the military home schooling contract this year –
money which ultimately could have supported activities and projects in
Galena. IDEA International also contributes to paying rent and overhead
costs at the buildings its shares with the in-state IDEA program, located in
Anchorage, Fairbanks and Wasilla.
IDEA International is drawing from an endowment fund to keep its program fully staffed and operational, in the absence of payments from DoDEA.
Cline admits that students and parents are caught up in the middle of this dispute, and are understandably confused about who is supposed to be providing educational services.
"We are still working with families," he says. "We have seen a withdrawal of some families to the other program, but it has been slow. It is approximately 130 students out of the 900 students," enrolled with IDEA International through the contract.
IDEA International program has held the DoD contract for 6 years. Senator Ted Stevens made the program possible, and safeguarded its funding through the use of earmarks.
But as Stevens’ power to use earmarks has declined recently, Galena Schools Superintendent Jim Smith recognized that IDEA International could lose the contract, and didn’t count on any revenue from IDEA International in the School District’s 5 year business plan, released last month.
Cline agrees that the protection offered by Stevens is likely at its end, so IDEA International will have to fend for itself in the future:
"I can't think of another example where Senator Stevens funded a pilot program for 6 years. His goal though always was that at some point DoDEA would embrace the program and take it in as one of its own. It's not likely [Stevens] will fund the program for another year, which is another reason why IDEA International is expanding its program and reaching out for other revenues in order to continue in our original goal which was to provide additional revenue for the Galena City School District."
But in the short term, Cline says that legal efforts on the part of IDEA International will continue. He expects that the matter will go before a judge again early next week, in an attempt to keep the overseas home schooling program in the Galena district’s hands during the GAO review process.