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Michael LaForgia, Times Staff Writer

Michael LaForgia is a member of the Tampa Bay Times' investigations team. He joined the Times in 2012.

Phone: (727) 892-2944.

Email: mlaforgia@tampabay.com

Twitter: @LaForgia_

  1. Lawmakers battle behind the scenes for tutoring money

    05/11/13K12By Michael LaForgia and Kathleen McGrory, Times/Herald staff writers

    TALLAHASSEE — As the legislative session neared an end this month, state Rep. Erik Fresen found himself in an awkward position.

    Just last year, Fresen helped keep a torrent of public money flowing to private tutoring firms.

    But after revelations of fraud and lax oversight turned the program into a black eye for education reform, his new orders from House leadership were clear: End subsidized tutoring, and do it now....

    Sen. Anitere Flores, who withdrew her proposal to add subsidized tutoring to an unrelated education bill, talks with Sen. Rene Garcia, who later made an identical proposal May 1.

  2. Lawmakers end subsidized tutoring program

    05/01/13K12By Michael LaForgia and Kathleen McGrory, Times/Herald Staff Writers

    TALLAHASSEE — A last-ditch effort by South Florida lawmakers to keep millions of dollars flowing to private tutoring companies suffered a resounding defeat on Wednesday, giving Florida school districts control over $100 million in federal education money for the first time in a decade.

    It happened when two Miami-Dade lawmakers tried to attach funding for subsidized tutoring into a fast-tracked bill that would expand online learning....

  3. UPDATED: Senator makes late push to save subsidized tutoring

    05/01/13 Blog Michael LaForgia and Kathleen McGrory

    TALLAHASSEE --- Just when it looked like Florida schools would be freed from state requirements to hire private tutoring companies, a state Senator is making a late push to mandate funding through a fast-tracked virtual learning bill.

    Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, this morning proposed an amendment to an amendment of HB 7029 that would require districts to pay 8 percent of roughly $1 billion in federal education money to private tutoring contractors....

  4. Tutoring for poor children under quiet debate

    04/20/13LegislatureBy Michael LaForgia and Kathleen McGrory, Times staff writers

    TALLAHASSEE — The fight over subsidized tutoring in the Florida Legislature has come down to a quiet confrontation set against an unlikely backdrop — a series of budget talks between the House and Senate.

    As the session winds down, the fate of the controversial program is being haggled over in private because of a last-ditch effort to tie reforms to the state budget process.

    On one side, the Florida House, backed by superintendents of the state's largest school systems, wants to end mandated tutoring for poor students and give districts control over the money....

  5. Have a story about SES? Tell us about it.

    03/18/13 Blog Michael LaForgia

    Last month, the Tampa Bay Times reported that criminals, cheaters and opportunists are taking advantage of lax oversight to collect millions through a subsidized tutoring program known as supplemental educational services.

    We also reported that companies accused of fraud are welcomed back to do business in the state again and again and that the system, in which vendors are hired by school systems statewide, is rife with conflicts of interest....

  6. Have a story about SES? Tell us about it.

    03/18/13 Blog Michael LaForgia

    Last month, the Tampa Bay Times reported that criminals, cheaters and opportunists are taking advantage of lax oversight to collect millions through a subsidized tutoring program known as supplemental educational services.

    We also reported that companies accused of fraud are welcomed back to do business in the state again and again and that the system, in which vendors are hired by school systems statewide, is rife with conflicts of interest....

  7. State senator proposes crackdown on tutoring companies

    03/06/13EducationBy Michael LaForgia, Times Staff Writer

    Criminals would be banned from running subsidized tutoring firms and state education officials would be required to track complaints and bar providers who cheat or commit fraud under a bill filed Tuesday in the state Senate.

    The measure would increase oversight of Florida's troubled, $50 million government tutoring program, which requires school districts to hire private tutors for poor kids in failing schools....

  8. State to crack down on private tutors

    02/12/13EducationBy Michael LaForgia, Times Staff Writer

    Florida will crack down on tutoring contractors that defraud school districts and — for the first time — require criminal background checks for people who head tutoring firms under changes announced Tuesday by the state's top education official.

    Education Commissioner Tony Bennett issued a statement outlining a series of steps his department will take to rein in fraud and ensure that tens of millions of dollars in education funding steered to private tutoring firms is better spent....

  9. Lobbying preserved millions for Florida tutoring companies

    02/10/13EducationBy Michael LaForgia, Times Staff Writer

    Second of two parts

    Every year for nearly a decade, private tutoring companies have made millions in Florida because the federal government required school districts to hire them.

    That was in danger of changing last February, when the state won freedom from mandated private instruction for poor children in the state's worst schools....

    Gov. Rick Scott’s Education Commissioner, Gerard Robinson, right, was adamant that subsidized tutoring be funded.

  10. Public schools lose millions to crooks and cheaters

    02/09/13EducationBy Michael LaForgia, Times Staff Writer

    First of two parts

    When Yolanda Axson wasn't watching, a pot of hot water spilled into a crib at her day care in Orlando, scalding a 4-month-old boy.
    She served probation for felony child neglect and then, barred from child care, found a less regulated line of work. She started a company to earn tax dollars tutoring poor kids in Florida's failing schools....

    Miami-Dade School Board member Raquel Regalado

  11. Some law-abiding citizens claiming self-defense go to prison without invoking 'stand your ground'

    10/06/12CriminalBy Michael LaForgia, Times Staff Writer

    When they brought in Abdel Odeh for attempted murder, the 19-year-old shop clerk acted more like a whimpering kid than a cold-eyed killer.

    In the police interview room, Odeh tried to explain that he had feared for his life when he shot a man outside the Star Seven convenience store in a blighted stretch of Lauderhill in 2008.

    Odeh didn't know it, but he had a powerful new law on his side....

    Abdel Odeh shot a man outside the South Florida shop where he worked because, he said, he feared for his life. But he didn’t invoke the “stand your ground” law. The judge sentenced Odeh, who was 19 and didn’t have a record, to 25 years for attempted first-degree murder with a firearm. (The charge and sentence have since been reduced.)