Texas prosecutors have filed felony charges against five people in a widespread teacher certification cheating scandal. This scandal is linked to hundreds of teachers in classrooms throughout the state not having proper certifications.
This is a million-dollar teacher certification cheating scandal that is sending shockwaves through the Texas education community. According to the Houston Federation of Teachers President Jackie Anderson, “It’s very disappointing because we have thousands of teachers across the state who put in the time.”
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who filed the charges against five people, said, “The damage is not just to the education system, which is under great duress right now, but it’s actually to the families of the children who go to those schools who trust our government to educate their kids.”
Prosecutors believe basketball coach Vincent Grayson of Booker T. Washington High School in Houston started the scheme for those who couldn’t pass their teacher certification exam by offering to pay someone else to take the exam for $2,500. Investigators said Grayson shared some of the money with two testing center employees who let others take the test for them. Grayson made over 1 million dollars from this cheating ring.
Harris County felony chief prosecutor Mike Levine said that an assistant principal at Booker T. Washington High School in the Houston ISD was one of the people who took and passed the test for potential teachers.
“In fact, when he was caught red-handed in February 2024, he was logged in on one test, and the screen behind him was logged in on another terminal that same day,” Levine said.
Prosecutors believe the scheme may have led to more than 200 illegally certified teachers in classrooms since 2020. They add that many teachers traveled four or more hours to get these fake certifications.
“It just destroys that kind of faith that our community has in public schools,” Ogg said.
The five defendants face two counts of engaging in organized criminal activity. At least 20 teachers have admitted to being part of the million-dollar scheme. Yates High School assistant principal LaShonda Roberts has also been charged with allegedly recruiting around 100 teachers for the scheme.
“The extent of this scheme will never be fully known, but we know that at least 400 tests were taken and at least 200 teachers falsely certified,” Ogg said.
Due to this scheme, “At least two sexual predators who were falsely certified had access through their employment to underage kids on campus and off,” Ogg said. Personally, I don’t understand why a teaching certificate gives you immediate access to kids. Usually, you need to pass a police background check before they let you on school grounds.