D.C.'s attorney general says a teacher exchange program in the District lied to foreign recruits and threatened them with deportation if they didn't sign annual contracts.
D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine's office on Monday sued Earl Francisco Lopez, the owner of D.C.-based Bilingual Teacher Exchange (BTE) and other companies, The Washington Post and NBC4 reported. The lawsuit says the program recruited teachers who wanted to work in a multiyear state department exchange program.
The lawsuit says the program pretended to be affiliated with the D.C. Public Schools system and said it could sponsor recruits, to whom it then charged thousands of dollars and offered predatory loans. It says the program didn't provide promised services like school placement and didn't pay teachers for some work.
"These claims are unequivocally inaccurate and untrue," Lopez said in a statement to NBC4. "Over the past 5 years BTE has provided a professional recruitment, placement, training, and support program for DC Public Schools. We will not litigate these false allegations in the media."
"DC Public Schools is aware of the lawsuit and will continue to fully support the Office of the Attorney General’s efforts to protect our teachers from predatory business practices," the school district said in a statement.
