St. Paul, Minn. - The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota thanks the Minnesota Department of Education for concluding their investigation of Tarek ibn Zayad Academy charter school and reporting their findings in a timely fashion.
The Minnesota Department of Education has completed its investigation and has identified two areas where TiZA's current practices violate the Establishment Clause. Although we believe that the MDE has taken some important steps to address Establishment Clause concerns that have been raised by the school's activities, the ACLU-MN has remaining concerns about the school's practices that were not addressed in the MDE findings. For that reason, we are continuing our investigation into this matter.
In addition to our investigation of TiZA, we are also working to identify systemic issues that may be paving the way for constitutional violations at charter schools.