Cherokee Child Care Center is a non-profit child care brokering agency for Shelby County. The agency provides child care assistance to low income working parents who are in school or a training program. Cherokee also oversees a job-training program for parents, which are set up through colleges and the Tennessee State Board of Education. The State of Tennessee distributes funds to Cherokee to pay for transportation, meals and annual enrollment fees of eligible enrollees. The agency provided services to approximately 21,000 children in Shelby County alone. Overall, about 400 daycare centers in Shelby County received state subsidies, 80 of which received at least $250,000 each in state aid. Furthermore, there are several centers that received at least $1 million in state subsidized aid. Among those centers include Riverview Kansas, which received a whopping $3.7 million, and OFLC, which received $1.7 million in aid last fiscal year. .
Was Madison unethical?.
Willie Ann Madison was the Executive Director of Cherokee Children and Family Services; she was accused of taking money from the State of Tennessee and giving large amounts of subsidies to favored child care centers. Senator John Ford allegedly owns some of those favored centers. Cherokee is under state contract that forbids any state official from receiving wages or compensation in exchange for acting as an "agent, employee, subcontractor or consultant". Although no evidence was found against Senator Ford confirming he had done something illegal was it morally right for him to accept funds from the federal government while sitting on the board of directors of Cherokee Family Services? Ford said he's not financially involved in "any day cares," including brother James Ford's four Children "s Palace Learning Academies, which receive about 2million a year from the state to subsidize enrollment of poor children. Other allegations toward Madison include charging the state twice the amount that it takes to pay for office space each month, and showing favoritism and unfairness to specific clients.
