Julia Keleher, Puerto Rico’s Former Choice Champion, Sentenced for Fraud

Julia Keleher, Puerto Rico’s education secretary from 2017 to 2019 and major advocate of vouchers and charter schools, was sentenced yesterday to six months in federal prison and 12 months of house arrest for conspiracy to commit fraud, reported The New York Times. Keleher was also ordered to pay a $21,000 fine. In June, Keleher had pleaded guilty “to two felony counts involving conspiracies to commit fraud.”

While secretary of education, Keleher signed “a letter endorsing a road-widening project that removed an obstacle to development of land adjacent to a public school,” reported the Times. In return, “the developer rented her an apartment in an adjacent building named Ciudadela from May to July of 2018 for $1.”

This matter of fraud only added to the controversy of Keleher’s time as secretary of education in Puerto Rico. According to Education Week, during her tenure, “Keleher said she was intent on overhauling Puerto Rico’s public schools” and “backed what became a landmark 2018 law to institute charter schools and vouchers.” Supporters welcomed the changes as a potential fix for low academic results, while the Puerto Rico Teachers Union vigorously opposed Keleher’s measures, particularly given her recommendations to close hundreds of public schools, reported Education Week.

Reflecting on her time in Puerto Rico, Keleher, a Philadelphia native, said in a phone interview with the Times, “I wasn’t communicating well, and I, culturally, was inept.” Keleher added, “I didn’t appreciate the culture or the context or what I represented.”

- G. García de la Noceda