Mike Miles, the Superintendent imposed on the Houston public schools by a state takeover, set up a chain of charter schools in Colorado. His charters are running a big deficit. They are also getting poor academic results. One of them closed.
Miles is still getting paid as a consultant to his charter chain.
Miles opened charter schools in Texas.
Investigative reporter Brett Shipp learned that millions of dollars are being transferred from Miles’s Texas charters to his Colorado charters, to pay down their debt.
When he asked the charter leaders about this transfer, he was told that all the charters are in the same chain, so no problem.
But Texas parents complain that their schools are underfunded. When Shipp interviewed them, they were shocked to hear that their tax dollars were being sent to underwrite the deficit of charters in Colorado.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
https://youtu.be/7lvAzupRuCU?si=XB-8qHioJqX1EMeX
”Disappearing Dollars: Texas Schools Missing Millions Of $$$$$$$$
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Disappearing Mike Miles Texas Public School Dollars $$$$$$$$!
https://youtu.be/7lvAzupRuCU?si=UAPRcwerOz2L-gdO
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Sounds as though he will soon be history and perhaps in prison. Karma, man.
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Charter school executives…CHEAT and LIE.
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Good morning, Diane. The final word in the post, “Xokorado,” I am confident, should be Colorado.
Also: grifters gonna grift.
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we get these reports constantly. Why is the electorate not up in arms and throwing out the bums?
Could it be the political base does not mind corruption when it is carried out by “our side”?
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This article and video leads me to at least one of several conclusions…. The Mike Miles charter schools in Texas are being overly funded with taxpayer dollars. There needs to be a very deep audit and investigation into why and how these charter schools can have enough funding enables them to sent Texas taxpayer dollars to Colorado to pay for the deficits of those Colorado charter schools.
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Texans should contact attorney general to alert him of the fraud. However, the person responsible is disgraced, ethically challenged Ken Paxton, another fraudster that Abbott put back in his position after a scandal that should have made Paxton history. Texas needs to vote out Abbott and his crew of con artists.
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Texas Attorney General Paxton is under indictment. Can’t report crimes to him.
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My first thought (gleeful) was that Mike Miles is going to go through some things. But my second thought was forget it, this is Texas, Jake.
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Kudos to spectrum news for their coverage. He’s gotta be toast after this, but then again-it’s Texas.
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In addition to all of this fraudulent conduct, Miles is tearing apart the Houston Independent School District. In the last few days, he has given at least three former “principals of the year” the choice to be fired or resign. The community is outraged, but as our governor replaced the elected school board with a board of managers, there is little recourse. Watch for increasing parent and community protests across the Houston district as the voters awaken to this politically motivated stunt to suppress the largest democratic party stronghold in Texas. BTW – I believe that Diane is an alum of one of the schools (Meyerland Performing Arts Magnet – formerly Johnston Middle).
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Peter,
I share your outrage.
Miles was installed in Houston to disrupt HISD. He’s doing it.
I am a graduate of Albert Sidney Johnson Jr High and San Jacinto High School. Johnson was a Confederate. That name had to go. Is the Meyerland School in the same location?
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Meyerland is indeed the school formerly named Johnson (I accidentally added the t). I think all of this is an attempt at voter intimidation from Abbott and his evangelical, billionaire funders from Midland. Keep up the excellent work.
The parents are now finally leading the protests both at the school board meetings and this weekend at city hall. My husband’s school lost its principal yesterday…she was the most experienced middle school in the district (18 years.).
I began my teaching career 40 years ago at Wheatley HS and the problems caused by extreme neglect and poverty in the 5th ward are the same now and not something that the schools will ever be able to fix. Until the leadership of Texas and the city devote attention and solutions to the problems caused by poverty, nothing will change.
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Peter, what Abbott is doing to HISD is disgraceful. He knows that parents and staff have no recourse.
Biggest outrage is that HISD was taken over because of one school, Wheatley HS, which as you know, has an unusually high proportion of kids who are special ed and poor.
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Opening a charter school is like having one of those automated watering devices for pets so they never run out of water.
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Not surprised to see Dale Chu is a member of the TFS corporate board. He clearly learned much under disgraced former Indiana state supt. Tony Bennett. Talk about a motley crew!
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HOUSTON – An HISD art teacher tells KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun she’s preparing to leave the district ahead of more cuts.
“I can’t take the instability of it,” the teacher said. “Every week is a new, new terrible thing to have to deal with.”
KPRC 2 is not identifying the teacher because they fear retribution for speaking out.
“We’re all just like, this is the first round. We know there’s more coming,” they said. “Now it’s just waiting to see; positioning yourself to doing whatever you can to protect yourself.”
A spokesperson for HISD said they can’t comment on specific positions, but shared district officials are trying their best to keep cuts away from the classroom.
“The staffing decisions being made by HISD will allow us to allocate the District’s limited resources in ways that will help ensure all students receive high-quality instruction every day,” the spokesperson said. “While we cannot comment on specific employees or positions being impacted by these reductions, many HISD departments are impacted.”
The art teacher said they were unaware of the potential cuts until last week when the message was sent.
The teacher said they’re not returning in the Fall and are aware of several teachers at their school also looking elsewhere.
“Every single teacher I know here is looking elsewhere or retiring,” they said.
KPRC 2 obtained a list of ‘reduction in force’ Houston ISD positions district leaders are considering cutting to deal with the budget deficit.
Art was first on the list.
“Almost every single department had to cut positions,” Miles confirmed last week.
Miles said the district had to close a gap of $450 million to avoid a shortfall for the next year. Federal relief that came during COVID is going away. Miles said the district should never have put some of that money in “recurring expenses” which he called “totally inappropriate.”
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/05/15/i-cant-take-the-instability-hisd-art-teacher-prepares-to-leave-as-leaders-consider-cutting-electives/
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