Carranza & gal pal’s Tex 2-step
DOE conflict eyed
What a hookup!
The ex-Department of Education curriculum honcho who has been dating former Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza moved into his Texas apartment months before she quit her job in the Big Apple — and as Carranza landed a gig at a firm that’s made millions selling technology and lesson plans to the DOE.
Raquel Sosa registered to vote at the posh address along San Antonio’s famed Riverwalk that she shares with Carranza on March 20, according to records kept by local election officials there.
She quit her job at the Department of Education five months later, on Aug. 31 — just a week before The Post revealed their relationship.
Sosa (inset with Carranza) filed the paperwork with the Bexar County Elections Department just five days after Carranza formally stepped down as New York City’s chancellor on March 15, ending a turbulent three years at the helm of the nation’s largest public school system.
Carranza went to work for education technology company IXL Learning, which has made at least $4 million selling educational software and instructional materials to the DOE.
In 2016, the firm netted a $1 million contract under Carranza’s predecessor, former Chancellor Carmen Fariña, that since ballooned to more than $4 million.
The months-long cohabitation came despite statements from the DOE’s top spokeswoman that Carranza had “pledged to follow all conflicts rules and will not engage with DOE or NYCDOE school officials on behalf of IXL for one year,” a regulation that is enforced by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board.
COIB rules also prohibit former employees — like Carranza — from ever working “on a particular matter they personally and substantially worked on for the City.”
“COIB should investigate,” said John Kaehny, the head of the good government group Reinvent Albany. “If Carranza or any other former commissioner with business with the City of New York is violating rules that are designed to prevent conflict of interest, then they should pay a price for that. Otherwise the law becomes meaningless.”
Those in Texas seeking to register to vote must affirm they are a “resident of the Texas county in which application for registration is made,” and face a fine of potentially $2,000 and up to 180 days in jail if they provide false information.
Carranza moved his voter registration to the same address in May.
Voter registration records reviewed by The Post show there is a typo in the building number of Sosa’s address, but the records list the same apartment number on the same street in the same ZIP code as Carranza’s.
In emotional remarks, Carranza told the public in February he was quitting to take time off and mourn the devastating toll that the coronavirus pandemic had taken on him, revealing he’d lost 11 family members and friends to the deadly disease.
But less than a month after his official departure from the DOE, on April 1, IXL announced it had hired Carranza as its head of “strategy and global development.”
Carranza and Sosa did not return messages left at their listed phone numbers.
The Department of Education was not immediately available to comment.