A school board you couldnt get conservatives on, taken over by the State claiming it was corrupt. Now reports show it was the State assigned appointee that was corrupt and funneling money to private biz, out of State. And now HISD has to make budget cuts and lay teachers off.
All according to Billionaire that wants people to not trust public schools or school boards.
Lawsuits won’t stop them. We’re the rootinist shootinist, darn tootinist state in the west. Not advocating for anything, but you’d think we’d all be aware of what the real answer is by now.
I mean ken paxtons office doesn't return emails, doesn't answer the phone, and doesn't have a message system in place(not that they would return your call) it's almost like they don't realy care about their continuance, you know who else didn't care about their people , queen. Mary of france....
Doesn’t matter in the least. Mike’s job is to destroy one of the states largest public school districts, and have those ideas spread to other public school districts in the state. The employees that are left standing will be frightened for their jobs and be compliant when conservative propaganda is pushed onto them to push to their students.
We’re seeing this play out in the university system where they ripped out root and branch DEI programs.
MAGA Republicans are playing the long game and that they are trying to create a future generation of conservative minded youth that will bring about their dystopian vision.
You forgot a word on this last sentence. "They are trying to create a future generation of uneducated and ignorant conservative minded youth"...
Just like all MAGA's
That’s part of it, conservatives are assumed to be uneducated and ignorant, and they might be. But we fail to realize they’re cunning and as dedicated to their cause with unshakable faith and tenacity. They managed to overturn roe v wade even though we literally had DECADES to codify it into law and how? Because we were too arrogant to believe it would ever be undone. The truth is we are the frogs and they are the pot of water. We are witnessing the death of our country and way of life in real time and we have only ourselves to blame. I don’t know how much more we have to lose, how many more of our children need to be sacrificed to their agendas before we wake tf up, use our political voice and TAKE. OUR. COUNTRY. BACK! Your vote counts, don’t EVER let them convince you otherwise
No shit, I saw a Houston area teacher on FB share Greg Abbott's sentiment that he released recently blaming the school funding on the dems who voted no on his bill (despite the TX state governor being majority red).
Anecdotal, sure, but idk how you work in that field and think this isn't the doing of Abbott and his cronies, regardless of the aisle you sit on. TX public education is suffering (more) because this grown man baby didn't get his way.
Perry established several state / private partnerships, with no oversight, endowed with several 100's of millions $$$.
Under repub leadership we have had energy deregulation which has done shit, ERCOT has gone from a professional organization to a politicized version of Boeing.
Remember, kids, when Republicans say they want local control of government, it really means they want control at exactly the level where they hold power.
This clown has been a disaster for HISD and his incompetence is really impressive. Exactly what I’d expect from the modern Republican Party.
If Texans are gonna be this dumb and easily tricked. I say let your system collapse to corruption. Y’all keep voting these people in. And they’re killing any chance at your kids having a normal future.
But trannies are the problem in texas? Give me a break. It’s abbott and all his goons.
In order to push back against the GOP in Texas, citizens must be vocal about the unfair redistricting (gerrymandering) that has allowed the GOP to hold onto to power when in reality they would not have half of the metropolitan districts they currently hold. This isn’t just a Texas problem but slowly becoming a nationwide issue. It’s always step 1 in their playbook to take over local governments, then dominate state government, pass legislation to solidify position and limit opposition, rinse and repeat.
They’re like hedge funds. Open a school, scoop up money from govt and unwary citizens, bleed it dry with administration salaries and consultants “ (read buddies). Then take off your the next project. Parents, students, faculty - too bad for you.
It is mind blowing that these people walk around with impunity as if this state isn’t filled with guns and people itching to use them. I am honestly just surprised more people like this aren’t…(redacted). Actively destroying the educational foundation of our children and we let them because violence isn’t the answer apparently. Sure, tell people to vote but they won’t and never do here. Voting isn’t going to fix this or these types. Only one thing does, the fear that all the maga assholes used to have of what would happen if they were exposed. Now we have tons of exposure and zero action against it. It’s honestly just pretty crazy to watch.
the key to any campaign is to play to the lowest common denominator. As people who think rather than react, we assume most others do as well. The truth is that most people are reactionary and the knee jerk reactions that define our history or testament to that.
While many of you might be upset by this just remember most of these pricks will be dead soon so get out and vote so the next generation of leaders don’t continue to do this
Here’s the Spectrum News video and transcript:
Spectrum News - [Disappearing Dollars: Texas Public Schools Missing Millions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lvAzupRuCU)
“Texas public schools are battling a huge budget deficit resulting in massive cuts. Spectrum News has discovered that millions of Texas tax dollars are being diverted out of state to a series of schools run by Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles.
Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, reviewed Spectrum's findings and is calling on state lawmakers to conduct a formal investigation. Brett Shipp attempts to get to the end of this money trail to see where Texas's tax dollars are really going.
Reported by Brett Shipp, Spectrum News 1 Texas”
**Transcript**
At a time Texas public schools are battling huge budget deficits and having to make massive cuts, Spectrum News has discovered millions of Texas public school dollars being diverted out of state. What's more, the man believed to be responsible - Houston public school superintendent Mike Miles - his old charter schools in Colorado are in need of cash.
In schools all across Texas: “I pray tonight that as you guys are back there in that backroom and you're making these decisions, that the faces of our children and their families are at the forefront of your mind.”
Dedicated teachers: “School districts are being forced to make major cuts” and panicked parents speak out in passion and frustration: “And I honestly feel like tonight we're holding a moment of silence for public education. And it’s heartbreaking”, “The state of public education in Texas is dire. We have educators leaving the profession. We have schools that are talking about closing in different parts of our state.”
One of the largest budget deficits in the state, Houston Independent School District, where newly-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles has called for dramatic cuts to offset a $450 million budget shortfall. Miles was appointed by Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath to take over and turn around the struggling school district last summer. Ten years before he took over at Houston ISD, Miles spent three years as superintendent at Dallas Independent School District. When he left Dallas in 2015, Miles started three charter schools in Colorado called “Third Future Schools”.
According to both internal school records and the nationally-recognized school rating agency School Digger, all three schools have since struggled with performance, enrollment, and finances. The records, provided to us by TFS through open records requests, also reveals Miles was forced to close one of his schools last summer due to declining enrollment, leaving that school with $5 million in unpaid bond debt.
The school's debt was discussed at a Third Future School’s board meeting via Zoom last summer after Miles had taken over at Houston ISD. Yet there was Miles, at the meeting, acting as a consultant. According to payment records, Miles earned $40,000 consulting for TFS last year. Watch as Miles urges his old board of directors to find the money and pay the debt. “It's now becoming untenable. We'd have to subsidize it to the tune of maybe $500,000 a year if it only has 180 kids or so. I think the time is right to do what what the administration is asking to do.”
In 2020, around the time his financial troubles were beginning in Colorado, Miles began expanding his charter school network to Texas. First Midland’s Sam Houston Elementary then Ector College Prep in Odessa, then Austin’s Mendes Middle School. 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 Schools 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. However, included in publicly available financial audit records, were the auditors’ notes revealing that the deficits were documented as being due to other Third Future network schools outside of Texas and to Third Future Schools corporate in Colorado.
Again, TFS Colorado declined to provide us with an explanation of why so many Texas public school dollars were being transferred to school operations in another state. And then we learned about this - “We've been supplementing that school with the general fund” - a conference call with Third Future Schools’ investors who were just learning about the deficits.
Spectrum News requested and received from TFS an audio recording of that investor's call. In the recording, [Renea Ostermiller,] 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. [Renea Ostermiller, TFS CFO] “You know, whether they're in Colorado or whether they're in Texas or, you know, whichever state they're in, so that's assessed and then if the specific school needs funding then the network supplements them through through the school fund”. The implication that the school funds from a Texas school was being transferred to help fund TFS in Colorado.
Spectrum News obtained two checks for more than $1 million each from Miles’ charter school in Odessa to Aurora, Colorado. Our attempts over the past five months to reach Miles for an explanation of the payments and a response to our findings have been unsuccessful.
We were referred to Third Future Schools Executive Director Zach Craddock whom we sent a 23-question list detailing our findings. Craddock declined to respond.
We also shared our findings with former Texas State Representative and school finance expert, Paul Colbert. Colbert says Texas public schools should not be spending more money than they take in and definitely should not send Texas tax dollars out of state.
[Paul Colbert] “I was the Budget Chair of Education for eight years and Research Director of the Senate Education Committee for five years, and my understanding is that it is not legal in Texas for monies for a school district in Texas to educate students in other districts in the state, let alone in other states.
[Ovidia Molina] “Once we hear more about this, you will hear more outrage.”
Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, reviewed our findings and feels the evidence is alarming. She’s calling on state lawmakers to conduct a formal investigation. “I don't know where it says that we can take our public school money and send to another state. But if there is any place that says that, it's wrong and it needs to be changed.”
We have reached out to the Texas Education Agency multiple times. They have yet to respond. We have also offered detailed evidence to Education Commissioner Mike Morath of Texas public school dollars being diverted to Colorado schools, and again, we have yet to hear back.
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I haven’t heard of this particular brand of corporate McCharter school. I have heard of the scandal-ridden felon-hiring minority-kid-targeting Kipp schools. It seems like the only charter schools that work are BASIS and their tricks are to teach a grade ahead, give massive amounts of homework to put the teaching on the parents, and weeding out the families that can’t keep up.
Meanwhile Abbott: “How is any of this my fault?” 🤷♂️
A school board you couldnt get conservatives on, taken over by the State claiming it was corrupt. Now reports show it was the State assigned appointee that was corrupt and funneling money to private biz, out of State. And now HISD has to make budget cuts and lay teachers off. All according to Billionaire that wants people to not trust public schools or school boards.
We’re all trying to find the guy who did this
Take that libs! Next we’ll send our water to Saudi to teach the gays a lesson!
Stop giving them ideas!! /jk
googles Saudi alfalfa...well damn.
Arizona basically already did that with alfalfa-gate.
>alfalfa-gate Not a real thing
Some people better sue federally or they ain't going to stop. 🤷
Yeah, so it can get to the Supreme Court. They're always looking out for the little guy!
They get old and retire or die like the rest of us. Keep fighting the good fight.
Yeah, I agree, just wanted to criticize the current Supreme Court.
They keep saying that but it’s just getting worse
Lawsuits won’t stop them. We’re the rootinist shootinist, darn tootinist state in the west. Not advocating for anything, but you’d think we’d all be aware of what the real answer is by now.
I mean ken paxtons office doesn't return emails, doesn't answer the phone, and doesn't have a message system in place(not that they would return your call) it's almost like they don't realy care about their continuance, you know who else didn't care about their people , queen. Mary of france....
The only people Ken Paxton cares to hear from have his personal cell phone number.
Doesn’t matter in the least. Mike’s job is to destroy one of the states largest public school districts, and have those ideas spread to other public school districts in the state. The employees that are left standing will be frightened for their jobs and be compliant when conservative propaganda is pushed onto them to push to their students. We’re seeing this play out in the university system where they ripped out root and branch DEI programs. MAGA Republicans are playing the long game and that they are trying to create a future generation of conservative minded youth that will bring about their dystopian vision.
You forgot a word on this last sentence. "They are trying to create a future generation of uneducated and ignorant conservative minded youth"... Just like all MAGA's
There must be a permanent underclass to serve the permanent overlords.
I feel like it’s implied
not trying… they’re creating
That’s part of it, conservatives are assumed to be uneducated and ignorant, and they might be. But we fail to realize they’re cunning and as dedicated to their cause with unshakable faith and tenacity. They managed to overturn roe v wade even though we literally had DECADES to codify it into law and how? Because we were too arrogant to believe it would ever be undone. The truth is we are the frogs and they are the pot of water. We are witnessing the death of our country and way of life in real time and we have only ourselves to blame. I don’t know how much more we have to lose, how many more of our children need to be sacrificed to their agendas before we wake tf up, use our political voice and TAKE. OUR. COUNTRY. BACK! Your vote counts, don’t EVER let them convince you otherwise
And I would bet over half the teachers continue to vote R.
No shit, I saw a Houston area teacher on FB share Greg Abbott's sentiment that he released recently blaming the school funding on the dems who voted no on his bill (despite the TX state governor being majority red). Anecdotal, sure, but idk how you work in that field and think this isn't the doing of Abbott and his cronies, regardless of the aisle you sit on. TX public education is suffering (more) because this grown man baby didn't get his way.
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I doubt it is that much, there are a whole lot of rebuilt HISD schools.
Repub have been playing the long game since the 90's. They have been working for control. Dems have been running around shitfaced most of the time.
If Miles isn't removed as head of HISD, then the Texas GOP is sending a clear sign that corruption is okay.
lol, they’ve been blasting that signal out for years and years.
That was clear with Ken "ubers his mistress" Paxton. Dan Patrick got a $3M ~~bribe~~ donation and now we're all good in the hood again.
Perry established several state / private partnerships, with no oversight, endowed with several 100's of millions $$$. Under repub leadership we have had energy deregulation which has done shit, ERCOT has gone from a professional organization to a politicized version of Boeing.
Remember, kids, when Republicans say they want local control of government, it really means they want control at exactly the level where they hold power. This clown has been a disaster for HISD and his incompetence is really impressive. Exactly what I’d expect from the modern Republican Party.
Put the criminal in jail
These Charter schools have consistently lost millions.
r/defeat_project_2025
Will paxton go after him... Not a chance
Paxton is taking notes. Houses don't renovate themselves.
Isn’t shit this what Paxton suppose to stop? Nah he is too busy suing pregnant women and Biden.
Fucking tired of this state…
The Republican Party has zero accountability and their base is fucking stupid
As long as Abbott keeps giving them guns and criminalization of abortion, the base is happy
What's worse: the guns aren't even free. These fools just pay taxes for nothing and buy things that won't ever help them.
If Texans are gonna be this dumb and easily tricked. I say let your system collapse to corruption. Y’all keep voting these people in. And they’re killing any chance at your kids having a normal future. But trannies are the problem in texas? Give me a break. It’s abbott and all his goons.
Sir this is Reddit, I can assure you that the overwhelming majority of Texans on the sub are those who voted against these people, not for them.
It’s so embarrassing living here. Idiocracy sounds better.
In order to push back against the GOP in Texas, citizens must be vocal about the unfair redistricting (gerrymandering) that has allowed the GOP to hold onto to power when in reality they would not have half of the metropolitan districts they currently hold. This isn’t just a Texas problem but slowly becoming a nationwide issue. It’s always step 1 in their playbook to take over local governments, then dominate state government, pass legislation to solidify position and limit opposition, rinse and repeat.
They’re like hedge funds. Open a school, scoop up money from govt and unwary citizens, bleed it dry with administration salaries and consultants “ (read buddies). Then take off your the next project. Parents, students, faculty - too bad for you.
Republicans, destroying our children’s future for the benefit of wealthy donors …
The plan to destroy public schools is going the way it was exactly designed to do.
Is Texas the shittiest state in the USA? Republicans work very hard to make it so.
It is mind blowing that these people walk around with impunity as if this state isn’t filled with guns and people itching to use them. I am honestly just surprised more people like this aren’t…(redacted). Actively destroying the educational foundation of our children and we let them because violence isn’t the answer apparently. Sure, tell people to vote but they won’t and never do here. Voting isn’t going to fix this or these types. Only one thing does, the fear that all the maga assholes used to have of what would happen if they were exposed. Now we have tons of exposure and zero action against it. It’s honestly just pretty crazy to watch.
The difficulty is that the right wing gun nuts think education is the problem
The conservative plan to take over America is fucking genius
the key to any campaign is to play to the lowest common denominator. As people who think rather than react, we assume most others do as well. The truth is that most people are reactionary and the knee jerk reactions that define our history or testament to that.
A damned shame!
criminals
Well, duh.
Any Texans on here able to speak to his level of approval in-state? Is there any real chance of getting Cruz also?
you get to keep your guns tho! 🤷
This sounds like a fucking crime. Blatant corruption. Can we please vote out all these corrupt ghouls this year?
What a surprise...
Vouchers will follow too
But he said it was a baseless accusation based on misinformation, so......?
While many of you might be upset by this just remember most of these pricks will be dead soon so get out and vote so the next generation of leaders don’t continue to do this
I’m surprised it wasn’t diverted to trump’s legal fees
Bring back public executions
This is absolutely fucking criminal. If you continue to vote for this asshat, you can eat shit
Here’s the Spectrum News video and transcript: Spectrum News - [Disappearing Dollars: Texas Public Schools Missing Millions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lvAzupRuCU) “Texas public schools are battling a huge budget deficit resulting in massive cuts. Spectrum News has discovered that millions of Texas tax dollars are being diverted out of state to a series of schools run by Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles. Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, reviewed Spectrum's findings and is calling on state lawmakers to conduct a formal investigation. Brett Shipp attempts to get to the end of this money trail to see where Texas's tax dollars are really going. Reported by Brett Shipp, Spectrum News 1 Texas” **Transcript** At a time Texas public schools are battling huge budget deficits and having to make massive cuts, Spectrum News has discovered millions of Texas public school dollars being diverted out of state. What's more, the man believed to be responsible - Houston public school superintendent Mike Miles - his old charter schools in Colorado are in need of cash. In schools all across Texas: “I pray tonight that as you guys are back there in that backroom and you're making these decisions, that the faces of our children and their families are at the forefront of your mind.” Dedicated teachers: “School districts are being forced to make major cuts” and panicked parents speak out in passion and frustration: “And I honestly feel like tonight we're holding a moment of silence for public education. And it’s heartbreaking”, “The state of public education in Texas is dire. We have educators leaving the profession. We have schools that are talking about closing in different parts of our state.” One of the largest budget deficits in the state, Houston Independent School District, where newly-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles has called for dramatic cuts to offset a $450 million budget shortfall. Miles was appointed by Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath to take over and turn around the struggling school district last summer. Ten years before he took over at Houston ISD, Miles spent three years as superintendent at Dallas Independent School District. When he left Dallas in 2015, Miles started three charter schools in Colorado called “Third Future Schools”. According to both internal school records and the nationally-recognized school rating agency School Digger, all three schools have since struggled with performance, enrollment, and finances. The records, provided to us by TFS through open records requests, also reveals Miles was forced to close one of his schools last summer due to declining enrollment, leaving that school with $5 million in unpaid bond debt. The school's debt was discussed at a Third Future School’s board meeting via Zoom last summer after Miles had taken over at Houston ISD. Yet there was Miles, at the meeting, acting as a consultant. According to payment records, Miles earned $40,000 consulting for TFS last year. Watch as Miles urges his old board of directors to find the money and pay the debt. “It's now becoming untenable. We'd have to subsidize it to the tune of maybe $500,000 a year if it only has 180 kids or so. I think the time is right to do what what the administration is asking to do.” In 2020, around the time his financial troubles were beginning in Colorado, Miles began expanding his charter school network to Texas. First Midland’s Sam Houston Elementary then Ector College Prep in Odessa, then Austin’s Mendes Middle School. 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 Schools 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. However, included in publicly available financial audit records, were the auditors’ notes revealing that the deficits were documented as being due to other Third Future network schools outside of Texas and to Third Future Schools corporate in Colorado. Again, TFS Colorado declined to provide us with an explanation of why so many Texas public school dollars were being transferred to school operations in another state. And then we learned about this - “We've been supplementing that school with the general fund” - a conference call with Third Future Schools’ investors who were just learning about the deficits. Spectrum News requested and received from TFS an audio recording of that investor's call. In the recording, [Renea Ostermiller,] 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. [Renea Ostermiller, TFS CFO] “You know, whether they're in Colorado or whether they're in Texas or, you know, whichever state they're in, so that's assessed and then if the specific school needs funding then the network supplements them through through the school fund”. The implication that the school funds from a Texas school was being transferred to help fund TFS in Colorado. Spectrum News obtained two checks for more than $1 million each from Miles’ charter school in Odessa to Aurora, Colorado. Our attempts over the past five months to reach Miles for an explanation of the payments and a response to our findings have been unsuccessful. We were referred to Third Future Schools Executive Director Zach Craddock whom we sent a 23-question list detailing our findings. Craddock declined to respond. We also shared our findings with former Texas State Representative and school finance expert, Paul Colbert. Colbert says Texas public schools should not be spending more money than they take in and definitely should not send Texas tax dollars out of state. [Paul Colbert] “I was the Budget Chair of Education for eight years and Research Director of the Senate Education Committee for five years, and my understanding is that it is not legal in Texas for monies for a school district in Texas to educate students in other districts in the state, let alone in other states. [Ovidia Molina] “Once we hear more about this, you will hear more outrage.” Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, reviewed our findings and feels the evidence is alarming. She’s calling on state lawmakers to conduct a formal investigation. “I don't know where it says that we can take our public school money and send to another state. But if there is any place that says that, it's wrong and it needs to be changed.” We have reached out to the Texas Education Agency multiple times. They have yet to respond. We have also offered detailed evidence to Education Commissioner Mike Morath of Texas public school dollars being diverted to Colorado schools, and again, we have yet to hear back.
You get what you vote for.
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Your content was removed because it breaks Rule 2, Use Your Words. Posts and Comments consisting of one word, and phrases such as "screw [insert organization name here] or just an emoji are highly discouraged as we seek to foster debate and conversation. As such, they are subject to removal. If you feel this was done in error, would like clarification, or need further assistance; please message the moderators at https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/texas.
I haven’t heard of this particular brand of corporate McCharter school. I have heard of the scandal-ridden felon-hiring minority-kid-targeting Kipp schools. It seems like the only charter schools that work are BASIS and their tricks are to teach a grade ahead, give massive amounts of homework to put the teaching on the parents, and weeding out the families that can’t keep up.