Former Charter School Operator To Pay Back $1.4 Million It Owes State

Ida Lieszkovszky / StateImpact: Ohio

The International Preparatory School on Cleveland’s East side was shut down several years ago, but it has since reopened as a new, CMSD sponsored charter school.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is ordering the operator of a former charter school to pay back $1.4 million it over-billed the state, with interest.

Hassina Shabazz and her late husband Da’ud Abdul Malik Shabazz ran two charters, The International Preparatory Schools (TIPS) for six years before abruptly shutting them down.

A state audit found the Shabazz’ inflated enrollment figures at their schools, cashing in on funding for hundreds of students that didn’t exist.

The Ohio Department of Education has been trying to get those funds back for years. An Ohio Supreme Court decision a year ago helped move that process forward by concluding that charter school operators are public officials who are responsible for misused or lost public dollars.

Any money that is recovered will go to Cleveland and other Northeast Ohio school districts that lost students and funding to the TIPS schools.

In a statement, DeWine said he takes the “policing of public funds very seriously, especially when that money is supposed to be used to educate our children,” and that the state will “vigorously enforce the responsibilities of school officials.”

You can hear one former TIPS teacher’s experience here, including how she never recovered her last couple paychecks, and at this point doesn’t expect to get the money she is owed.

Charters, known as community schools in Ohio, are technically public schools that operate on public funding, but are often run by private or community groups.

Charters have had mixed results in Ohio, both academically and financially. The TIPS schools had a poor academic track record while they were in operation, while other charters like the Breakthrough Charter Schools in Cleveland, have enjoyed great success.