This is one of those rare occasions when the ACLU has done something I agree with. This school in Minneapolis was getting taxpayer funded support AND teaching Islamic doctrine throughout its program until the ACLU stepped in with a lawsuit. We’ve written about Tiza on previous occasions (here is one post in 2009, follow links back to older posts for the full story).
It is now officially closing.
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Hat tip: Lynn):
A day after state officials e-mailed him shutdown instructions, the director of Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) advised parents to find new schools for their children while holding out hope that, “by some miracle,” the charter school can stay open.
Standing beneath a basketball hoop Friday evening, Asad Zaman faced a crowd of more than 100 parents in the gym of the school’s Inver Grove Heights campus. Mothers and fathers sat apart on either side of an aisle, at this meeting of a school where the vast majority of families are Muslim.
“I have to tell you, most likely the school will not survive,” Zaman said, estimating that TiZA has a 10 percent chance of staying open.
In the eyes of the state, it has already ceased to exist as a public school. Left without legally required oversight when a new state law took effect Friday, the school has been told that it will no longer receive state aid.
[…..]
In the petition, the school reported receiving about $4.4 million in state and federal funding for 2010-11.
The school accommodated hundreds of mostly Somali Muslims who came to Minnesota for its “welcoming” welfare, however, in recent days we see the state is strapped for cash so I’m wondering if that cash shortage will result in closing the refugee spigot for the state as well.