“The results of this bombshell investigation should serve as a wakeup call for parents, students, and teachers who aren’t already outraged about Greg Abbott’s takeover of our school system,” said Ruth Kravetz, a former HISD chemistry teacher and co-founder of the Community for Voices of Public Education. 

“Greg Abbott opened the door to this type of fraud by installing an unelected board of managers and putting Mike Miles in charge of our schools. We’ve warned for years that laundering taxpayer dollars and giving it to private and charter schools was part of their plan, and now we have the receipts to prove it. This scheme goes beyond bad policy or governance, it’s corruption and we’re calling for a federal investigation into this scheme along with the immediate resignation of Miles. Houston deserves a public education system run by competent, democratically elected representatives who share our values and are in it for the right reasons. We won’t stop fighting until that happens.”  

CVPE is also calling on the community to contact their elected representatives and ask them to call for a federal investigation into how Texas public education funds are being used. Additionally, CVPE is encouraging community members to speak at the next HISD Board of Managers meeting on Thursday, May 16th and make their voices heard.  

#####

Here is an excerpt from the report and a little background.  Miles started a charter school network in  Colorado after he was run off from Dallas ISD. Third Future Schools Colorado had three schools. One closed last year due to low enrollment. Mike Morath was a Dallas ISD School Board member while Miles was superintendent from 2012-2015. 

From the news story, “Around the time his financial troubles were beginning in Colorado, Miles began expanding his charter school network to Texas (through SB 1882 partnerships.)

“But by the end of the 2023 school year as he was taking over in Houston, Miles’ three Texas schools were nearly $2.7 Million in the red. So why were Miles’ new Texas schools losing money? Third Future School's 2023 audit shows of the $25 million public tax dollars being spent on Miles’ three Texas schools, $15 million was spent on teachers and supplies. The other $10 million, about 40% of the entire budget, was spent on unspecified administrative costs and services. Spectrum News made multiple requests over the course of several months for a detailed accounting of those administrative expenses. Third Future Schools never responded.

“Spectrum News requested and received from TFS an audio recording of that investor's call. In the recording, the TFS chief financial officer confirms the Colorado Charter school deficit was being offset by the money coming in from their charter schools in Texas."

Watch the full report. https://t.co/4h7hu9JF9D

Here are details about the HISD Board meetings on Thursday; one is a 5:30 pm budget meeting and the other is the hastily called 8:30 pm “special meeting.” 

Click here for instructions to sign up or complete this form in English or en espanol and send to [email protected] by Wednesday at noon. For help signing up, join CVPE at 8 pm tonight.

5:30 pm Agenda here. You can sign up for “District budget” or speak about issues important to you under the boilerplate personnel a or personnel b.

8:30 pm Agenda here. Sign up for personnel a or personnel b. Personnel b has specific language about approving waiver and release and compromise agreements for principals at twelve schools.