Report: Ohio charter paid immigration fees
Associated Press - May 17, 2011 4:55 PM ET
CLEVELAND (AP) - A company operating 16 publicly funded charter schools in Ohio improperly paid $13,000 in immigration and related fees for teachers it had recruited overseas, a television station reported.
State auditors repeatedly rejected the fees that Concept Schools and its Horizon Science Academies had paid for 19 Turkish immigrants, WEWS-TV reported. The station reviewed 10 years of state audits and reported that auditors had asked for the money to be repaid.
"All of these funds were reimbursed at the time the auditor's office made its ruling," the company said Tuesday in an e-mail to The Associated Press. The station said the attorney general's office received final documentation on the repayments Monday.
The company told the station it has stopped paying such fees.
The company said in the e-mail that it had voluntarily disclosed the fees in state audits. It compared recruiting in Turkey to teacher recruiting in India in the 1990s by Cleveland public schools.
"Whenever it makes sense, Horizon Science Academies hire Ohio teachers and support staff," the company said.
Audits for 2005 said a Cleveland academy had paid $595 in immigration-related fees for an employee and a Toledo academy paid $297 in such fees.
The company said at the time that the fees for the Toledo employee were "no different than paying relocation expenses for new employees." The audit report rejected that, calling the fee "a direct benefit to the individual."
Concept Schools was founded in Ohio by two Turkish-American educators, according to its Web site.
A company vice president, Salim Ucan, told the station it recruits overseas because high-quality math and science teachers are hard to find. He said the academies provide a quality education.
In the e-mail, Ucan said more than 95% of its high school academy students in Ohio graduate and are accepted to college.
Ten years ago, a quarter of academy teachers came from Turkey. Ucan said the share of overseas teachers has dropped to 8.5% - 51 international teachers, mostly Turkish, among 596.
http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=14663526
