Illegal Superintendent's Consulting Gig Evidences Public School Corruption

By Carole Hornsby Haynes     October 13, 2025 

Since his arrest last month by ICE, the public is still struggling with how Ian Roberts could have been hired by the board of the largest public school district in Iowa despite the facts: he was unauthorized to work in the U.S., had a history of criminal charges, and touted falsified credentials. 

The depth of public school fraud and corruption by Roberts goes deeper. 

He has been affiliated with Lively Paradox and founder, Nicole Price, since 2016 as “executive leadership coach.” The company followed Roberts from district to district across four states while being awarded with tens of thousands of dollars in contracts from school districts where he held leadership posts. Price co-authored two books with Roberts, The Power of Seven Second Chances, their vision for managing schools with compassion, and Dangerous Indifference: The Case for Culturally Responsive Leadership, which calls for leaders to embrace and understand differences. Both are slanted decidedly leftward. Price promoted Roberts as a former Olympian and inspiring educator known for turning around schools. 

Fee schedules advertised by Lively Paradox as $38,975 for a two-day “high performance workshop,” keynote presentations for $15,000, and coaching packages for $9,995. How much income that Lively Paradox received because of its relationship with Roberts or how much they paid him as “executive leadership coach” is unknown as this point. 

With the spotlight on the Des Moines school board about their hiring of Roberts as superintendent, chairman Jackie Norris defensively countered, “I strongly feel that a review is needed of all expenditures related to the former superintendent.” 

The scandal of Ian Roberts is just the tip of the iceberg of fraud and corruption in public education.  In a flagrant abuse of power, they enrich themselves and their friends through kickbacks, contract steering, embezzlement, conflict of interest, nepotism, credential fraud, and misuse of public funds. 

Most recently in the news is the indictment of Dr. Devon Horton, superintendent of DeKalb County Schoolsin Georgia, by a federal grand juryin Chicago on 17 counts including wire fraud, theft, and tax evasion. He is alleged to have issued more than $280,000 in kickbacks from 2020-2023 to three others while he was superintendent of the Evanston-Skokie school district. 

Penny Schwinn, a Trump Department of Education nominee, is known for steering contracts with conflicts of interest.  While at the Texas Education Agency in 2016, she awarded a $4.4 million contract to SPEDx, a Georgia software startup without competitive bidding.  Schwinn had somehow forgotten to disclose her professional development training from the person who became the subcontractor on the special education contract.  Later, in Tennessee, she signed an $8 million contract with TNTP Inc., a New York based company for whom her husband worked, as part of Tennessee's reading initiative. 

Rick Sorrells, former superintendent of Dallas County Schools, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for taking more than $3 million in bribes to steer conracts for school bus cameroas to a vendor. 

Matthew Constant, former superintendent of Owensboro Public Schools in Kentucky, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for multiple child sex crimes. 

Dallas Dance, former superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland, got a six-month prison sentence for lying about receiving nearly $147,000 in consulting income while in office. 

The case of Frank Tassone, with Roslyn School District in New York, was the basis for the movie Bad Education. He was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for orchestrating a $10 million scheme for the district to steal from taxpayers. 

Matthew Constant, former superintendent of Owensboro Public Schools in Kentucky, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for online sexual exploitation of children.  

Yvonne Gonzalez, with Dallas Independent School District, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for illegally using district funds to buy furniture for her home and office. 

Critics of school choice programs demand full transparency of how the government funds are used.  But where is the transparency in public schools? Where is theoutrage over the fraud and corruption of public school officials? Where is the public transparency about the vetting and hiring process?

Fraud and corruption by public education  officials has eroded public trust, damaged the quality of education, and stolen millions of dollars from schools.  If public education expects to stop the mass exodus from government schools to private and homeschools, then there must be swift punishment for all who use their position as a cash cow.