Texas had 200 fake teachers in classrooms before anyone noticed.
Now Florida just caught the woman running the same scheme – and she was recruiting customers on Facebook.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier just arrested a Fort Lauderdale woman for taking teacher certification exams on behalf of people who couldn't pass them – and the clients she served are already standing in front of children in Broward County classrooms.
She Was Advertising on Instagram and Charging $1,000 a Test
Kashaundra Knowles, 37, built a side business selling teacher credentials to people who couldn't earn them.
She charged roughly $1,000 per exam.
She swapped driver's licenses with clients to get past ID checks.
She altered her hair, makeup, and clothing to match their appearance.
In at least one case, she dressed as a man to sit for an elementary education certification exam.
Investigators first caught her through a completely separate probe – a cheating ring on the NCLEX-RN nursing exam.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2070209606500991265?s=20
Pearson VUE Special Investigations flagged check-in photos from a December 2024 nursing exam that showed Knowles' face under someone else's name.
From there, palm-vein biometric analysis cracked the whole operation.
The same palm-vein template – Knowles' – kept showing up in exams registered to different people across multiple testing sites in Broward, Palm Beach, and Volusia counties.
She had taken a legitimate exam herself in 2018, which gave investigators the biometric baseline to nail her.
Phone records showed direct coordination immediately before and after every test appointment.
Uthmeier announced her arrest Thursday and delivered a direct message to every teacher who used her: "If you're one of these teachers that has fraudulently gotten your certification, just go ahead and bring yourself in. The music stopped. It's ending for you one way or the other."
Broward County Already Has Fake Teachers in Its Classrooms
Investigators have identified eight or nine clients who paid Knowles to take their exams – multiple ones already working in Broward County schools or trying to get hired there.
Uthmeier said the scheme "is much bigger than that."
Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas confirmed that anyone who fraudulently obtained a teaching credential now faces administrative investigation and potential license revocation.
School districts can take separate employment action without waiting for the state certification process.
This is not a paperwork violation.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2070192233710756094?s=20
Texas ran the same experiment from 2020 to 2024 – a Houston-based cheating ring put over 200 unqualified teachers in classrooms across the state before investigators shut it down.
At least two of those fraudulently certified Texas teachers were sexual predators who gained access to children through their employment.
The ringleader made over $1 million.
Florida caught Knowles before her operation scaled that far.
Knowles faces charges of organized scheme to defraud, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, and money laundering – up to 15 years in Florida state prison.
Broward's Democrat Machine Let This Go On Long Enough
Here is what parents in Broward County are living with right now: their children may be sitting in classrooms taught by adults who proved they couldn't pass a basic competency test – and then paid someone else to fake the credential.
Broward County is one of the most Democrat-controlled school districts in America.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2070168066676203901?s=20
The same political machine that spent years fighting Florida's education reforms, battling parents over what gets taught in classrooms, and protecting union interests over student outcomes – that machine failed to catch a woman running a teacher fraud operation on social media for years.
Florida caught her because Uthmeier's office partnered with the U.S. Department of Education's Inspector General and used biometric technology that Broward County's own administrators never flagged.
Research on uncertified teachers shows students lose roughly 20 percent of a full academic year in academic growth for every year they spend with an unqualified educator.
That's the price Broward kids paid while nobody was watching.
Every person who paid $1,000 to skip a certification exam was betting that the adults running Broward County schools were too distracted – or too indifferent – to notice.
Florida just proved that bet doesn't pay.
Sources:
- Office of the Florida Attorney General, "Attorney General James Uthmeier Announces Arrest of Fort Lauderdale Woman Accused of Running Large-Scale Proxy Cheating Operation for Florida Teacher Certification Exams," Florida AG Press Release, June 25, 2026.
- "Florida charges woman in alleged scheme to take teacher certification exams for others," CBS12/AP, June 25, 2026.
- "Broward tutor accused of cheating on state certification exams for teachers and other professionals," CBS Miami, June 25, 2026.
- "Hundreds illegally got Texas teacher licenses through cheating ring, Harris County prosecutors say," The Texas Tribune, October 29, 2024.
- "Texas teacher cheating scandal puts more than 200 unqualified teachers into classrooms," Click2Houston/Fox, October 2024.
