Following a years-long investigation, the Texas Education Agency takes control of the largest charter school network in Texas.
IDEA schools had been under investigation for years for things like using taxpayer money to spend millions to lease a private jet, to buy a boutique hotel in Cameron County, and leasing a luxury suite for San Antonio Spurs games.
Nicole Hill with the Texas AFT notes the Houston ISD was taken over by the state last year, based on standardized test scores at a couple of high schools, both of which had by then improved.
She says the first whistleblower complaint on IDEA came out in 2015.
"Numerous school districts have been taken over by TEA in the past few decades, El Paso ISD being one of them, for financial mismanagement," said Hill. "It does not take 9 years for a public school district to be taken over for this level of grift."
The school got some $820 Million from the state for the 2023-2024 school year. A message left with the Texas Education agency was not returned.
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