NYC DOE principal Caleb Haraguchi-Combs being paid nearly $200K despite not working at any school

This is Ludacris.

An NYC educrat who moonlights as a rapper is raking in an eye-watering $192,374 principal’s salary for not running a school, The Post has learned.

Caleb Haraguchi-Combs was a vice principal in BORO when he was handpicked in January to become “project director” of the proposed Next Generation Technology High School.

The promotion came with a $50,000 raise to principal-level compensation. A project director of a planned school usually becomes the new school’s principal.

But Haraguchi-Combs’ new school — a proposed FiDi institution focusing on artificial intelligence and computer tech — was never approved or opened.

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels torpedoed the proposal in April after woke backlash over its merit-based admissions model and general fear of AI in schools.

Yet the windfall continued for Haraguchi-Combs, 33.

In his previous role as assistant principal at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics in East Harlem, he made $141,960 a year, according to public records.

A Manhattan Center official confirmed that Haraguchi-Combs is no longer at the school.

When The Post confronted the educator this week outside his shimmering Downtown Brooklyn high-rise, Haraguchi-Combs refused to say where he worked.

“You came to my house? Outrageous,” he barked at a reporter.

The DOE said that Haraguchi-Combs is currently “developing new proposals and supporting in-progress proposals,” a typical role for project directors whose schools don’t exist.

However, a DOE source strongly refuted that claim.

“Unless a principal has tenure, they get bumped back to AP if their schools don’t open,” the source said. Officials “never should have named a principal before the school was approved.”

Haraguchi-Combs would have been unable to apply for tenure as a principal since he never wound up serving in the role.

DOE insiders are fuming over the waste of taxpayer money — and questioned why Haraguchi-Combs simply couldn’t be sent to work at another school.

“What was the plan? There’s a lot of schools that could use a principal, there’s opportunities to appoint principals since then, it’s a huge waste of resources,” the DOE source said.

The erstwhile principal’s situation came to light in a letter sent to DOE leadership by anonymous Manhattan high school principals urging an investigation into Superintendent Gary Beidleman.

The October missive ticked off numerous concerns, including organizational dysfunction, hiring unqualified candidates, not meeting class size requirements, and Haraguchi-Combs’ status.

Haraguchi-Combs has a curious alter-ego named Cal Combs, who has made two rap albums. He calls himself “half hip-hop artist, half English teacher.”

In his 2017 album “Carmel,” named after the Indiana city where he once lived, he rapped about a drug deal that went south, and having to flee gunfire:

“So now I got a nine hidden in my backpack/I took all the things I learned and put them on backtrack . . . They said that they would meet us at the spot at seven thirty/we packed a bag and arrived five minutes early.”

In his song “Roundabouts,” he rapped about snorting cocaine and excessive drinking:

“One more bump on that key/one more drink and I’m free/one more shot to forget/ how much I hate me.”

Zilvinas Silenas, president of good government nonprofit think tank The Empire Center for Public Policy, called Haraguchi-Combs’ lush salary an insult to taxpayers.

“This is a new level for New York, when you are getting paid nearly $200,000 for a job you’re not doing, most taxpayers have never even dreamed of making that kind of money,” Silenas said.

Haraguchi-Combs, who took his wife’s last name and started his education career as an English teacher in Tokyo in 2015, according to his LinkedIn.