Minnesota Investigating Use Of Lease Aid Funds By Charter School

Yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that, in its latest encounter with the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, the Minnesota Department of Education is investigating whether the charter school improperly used state funds to subsidize mosques on its two campuses. TiZA has received a total of $2.23 million since 2003 under the state's lease aid program that is designed to help state charter schools rent adequate facilities. For over a year the state has been looking into questions of whether the school has violated constitutional requirements for religious neutrality. (See prior posting.)