Frederica Freyberg:
But first, the state has shut down hundreds of daycare operations in Wisconsin after uncovering more than $20 million  of fraud in the so-called Wisconsin Shares program. The nearly $400 million government funded program pays for childcare so low-income families can go to work. The largest percentage of subsidized child care providers are in Milwaukee, where many who've been cut off are crying foul.

Earl Ingram:
You don't realize that there's some injustice involved in this. Many are quick to point the finger at day care providers but when you hear some of the stories yourself, there's something going on here that is not right.

Frederica Freyberg:
Milwaukee radio show host, Earl Ingram, says something is not right about the state crackdown on fraud in the Wisconsin Shares program.

Earl Ingram:
How are you doing?

Frederica Freyberg:
Callers jammed the lines for this topic and on this show — most of them are of the same opinion.

Man:
This is malicious prosecution. They have intent to go after these people.

Earl Ingram:
I appreciate the call. I truly do appreciate it.

Frederica Freyberg:
Since September, more than 200 child care providers, most of them in Milwaukee, have been suspended or revoked from the program that uses government money to pay the child care of low-income families. State auditors have uncovered more than $20 million of fraud in Wisconsin Shares. Under new laws, the state can suspend payments and effectively shut down child care centers and homes if a regulator reasonably suspects fraud. In addition to seven retired police officers around the state making investigative visits to child care providers, the Department of Children and Families uses a new computer program designed to track red flags that would make them suspect fraud. Flags like missing attendance records or rapid revenue growth.

Henry Wilde:
We started to look at revenue growth where a provider would grow from zero to $500,000 in annualized revenue in a one-year period when you know that national, well-established players who have all the advantage of scale and scope can't do the same thing. When we started to look at that data, then we said, now we're getting a sense of the size of this problem.

Frederica Freyberg:
Providers are allowed to appeal suspensions and revocations but that takes time and by then, their businesses are closed and day care families have made other arrangements.

Shanquill Merriwether:
We're waiting and we're waiting with no pay. This is a huge problem because our families suffer, our employees' families suffer.

Frederica Freyberg:
Shanquill Merriwether joins the chorus on Earl Ingram's radio show.

Earl Ingram:
He's back.

Frederica Freyberg:
As does former school board member, Leon Todd, who has taken on the cause for the ousted providers.

Leon Todd:
The way we went about this was, we cut them all off under the suspicion. That means you cut off their income and now you can go after them and they don't have the wherewithal to hire an attorney.

Frederica Freyberg:
So Milwaukee attorney, Felicia Miller Watson, has stepped up to help. She, like others, says the state was lax in its oversight and is trying to make it up.

Felicia Miller Watson:
The state of Wisconsin had not done anything, so now they're in rush mode because they're behind the gun, and now we're just going to cut folks so we can now cut money to different providers when it's not being fair, it's not following due process. You know, it's just, as we can say, it's not right.

Latasha Jackson Wilder:
I think that you should be — you should be innocent until proven guilty.

Frederica Freyberg:
Latasha Jackson Wilder is appealing the state's revocation of her license for alleged overpayment. So far, one hearing examiner has sided with her. But she became the poster provider for reportedly making big money off the Wisconsin Shares program when photos of her suburban mansion hit the news. Her next door neighbor, also a Milwaukee child care provider, getting Wisconsin Shares payments, also lives in a mansion.

Felicia Miller Watson:
Day care providers are business people. They got into the business to make money. This is not a not for profit. This isn't a church. This is a person entering in a contract with the state to make money.

Reggie Bicha:
The department has taken more aggressive action than ever.

Frederica Freyberg:
Department of Children and Families Secretary, Reggie Bicha, appeared before a legislative committee tracking the fraud, telling lawmakers he's taking out some big moneymakers.

Reggie Bicha:
We suspended payments to several providers that were taking in more than a million dollars per year in Shares payments.

Frederica Freyberg:
The state says Cassandra Holley was taking in nearly $2 million a year in Wisconsin Shares payments before she voluntarily surrendered her child care license and shut down her Dreamland Childcare centers in February. She did that just as the state was poised to pull the license over her past record.

Cassandra Holley:
Because a 19-year-old kid, 27 years ago, made a mistake.

Frederica Freyberg:
Holley said when she was a single teen mother, she accepted just under $3,000 too much in food stamps and was convicted of public assistance violations, a misdemeanor. She paid it back.

Cassandra Holley:
I keep waking up thinking that it's a bad dream and that it's not real.

Frederica Freyberg:
But new laws, in effect in February, permanently bar a provider from having a child care license for any public assistance fraud ever.

Cassandra Holley:
You tell me that I am permanently barred and I will never be able to be a part of a child's life again, go get a job, that's cruel.

Frederica Freyberg:
Holley even had her conviction expunged by a judge who stated in his order, "there were  no further violations of the law incurred by the defendant since this offense." The offense occurred in 1983.

Felicia Miller Watson:
What her crime was, was a misdemeanor where she was expunged. She received an
expungement from the state and the courts, and she's still even then, you still can't have your own business? Somehow that seems wrong, completely wrong.

Frederica Freyberg:
Cassandra Holley said she started her career as a Head Start teacher and two decades ago opened her own child care business.

Cassandra Holley:
This is all I know how to do.

Leon Todd:
It's my conclusion that they have drawn their conclusion about fraud and now they've gone about proving it, they're going to prove it any way they can, and due process is going out the window.
Equal protection is going out the window. New statutes are being retroactively applied to past transgressions.

Frederica Freyberg:
But the secretary, Reggie Bicha, is unapologetic, telling us, "While some might say our actions are too aggressive, we are confident that holding child care providers to high standards is the right thing to do for kids and a fair way to protect taxpayer dollars."

Dreamland had to close up shop so fast children left backpacks and sweatshirts on the hooks. One example of hundreds in the state's tough, new crackdown on fraud.

Frederica Freyberg:
Now this update to this story, the Department of Children and Families has just reinstated
Cassandra Holley's license based on the fact her misdemeanor had been expunged by a judge. The department says this is an example of its efforts to apply due process while working with new laws designed to eliminate fraud. Holley says she's thrilled and expects to re-open soon.