#Comptroller candidate calls for investigation into DOE spending

City Controller Michelle Caruso-Cabrera has called for an independent investigation into spending by the Department of Education under ex-schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.

Caruso-Cabrera’s call for a probe comes in the wake of a report by The Post that revealed the education department paid Carranza’s current employer — IXL Learning, Inc. — $3.3 million in the past two years alone.

The DOE awarded the California ed-tech firm a seven-year contract in 2016, under former Chancellor Carmen Fariña.

The contract called for a maximum cost of $1,041,869, but payments have exceeded that — against procurement rules.

“The DOE often spends beyond registered contract maximums before submitting amendments or extensions to the comptroller’s Office,” said Hazel Crampton-Hays, press secretary for Comptroller Scott Stringer.

IXLannounced its hiring of Carranza on April 1 — less than three weeks after his last day as chancellor.

The DOE has said Carranza “followed all job-hunting conflict and recusal rules while securing his job with IXL”

But Caruso-Cabrera wants an investigation to determine if conflict-of-interest rules were violated.

“As someone who has spent decades following the money and questioning the lies, and not a professional politician like everyone else involved, I know that what we need here is an outside investigator who can scrutinize every detail,” Caruso-Cabrera told The Post in a statement.

“It’s outrageous that millions of taxpayer dollars were awarded by the DOE to a
company whose learning programs have been blasted by parents and students at the same time that the former school chancellor was interviewing for a high-powered position at that same company,” said Caruso-Cabrera.

“Where was the oversight here?” she added.