I was a longtime employee of Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) but quit this past January because I was so alarmed at what I experienced that I wanted to alert the public. The Santa Barbara Unified School District has recently hired Maxim Healthcare Services, a privately held corporation with a history of defrauding Medicaid and the Veteran's Affairs program of millions of dollars in fraudulent billings for services not rendered or otherwise not reimbursable. In fact, Maxim's history of fraud and overbilling resulted in a $150 million settlement with theDepartment of Justice.
Maxim is a new development for SBUSD. It wasn't here when I left for Santa Cruz, California, a little over two years ago. This corporation was hired to provide "para educators" for the school district's most vulnerable population: special needs students. These wonderful students are some of my favorite people in the world, and their education is not for sale; it is not to be outsourced to a company with years of defrauding some of our country's most important institutions. And remember, Maxim has been hired to work with students least able to advocate for their education.
From what I understand Maxim employees are in many, many schools in the district, which no doubt is extremely lucrative. These employees can be moved from jobsite to jobsite a moment's notice, and they apparently can't apply to the SBUSD while under contract with Maxim.