ProPublica and the Texas Tribune reported the curious tale of the guy who is probably the highest-paid school superintendent in the state. His base salary of $300,000 is the tip of the iceberg. He oversees small schools in three districts with a total of about 1,000 students.
Over the last three years, the head of a small charter school network that serves fewer than 1,000 students has taken home up to $870,000 annually, a startling amount that appears to be the highest for any public school superintendent in the state and among the top in the nation.
Valere Public Schools Superintendent Salvador Cavazos’ compensation to run three campuses in Austin, Corpus Christi and Brownsville exceeds the less than $450,000 that New York City’s chancellor makes to run the largest school system in the country.
But Cavazos’ salary looks far more modest in publicly posted records that are supposed to provide transparency to taxpayers. That’s because Valere excludes most of his bonuses from its reports to the state and on its own website, instead only sharing his base pay of about $300,000.
The fact that the superintendent of a small district could pull in a big-time salary shocked experts and previewed larger transparency and accountability challenges that could follow as Texas moves to approve a voucher-like program that would allow the use of public funds for private schools.
Cavazos’ total pay is alarming, said Duncan Klussmann, an associate professor at the University of Houston Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies.
“I just can’t imagine that there’d be any citizen in the state of Texas that would feel like that’s OK,” Klussmann said.
Details concerning Cavazos’ compensation, and that of two other superintendents identified by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, drew a sharp rebuke from the association that advocates for charter schools across the state.
“It’s not acceptable for any public school to prioritize someone’s personal enrichment ahead of students’ best interests,” Brian Whitley, a spokesperson for the Texas Public Charter Schools Association, said in a statement. He added that any payment decisions made at the expense of students should be reversed immediately….
At least two other Texas charter school districts have also paid their superintendents hundreds of thousands of dollars on top of what they publicly reported in recent years, our analysis found.
Dallas-based Gateway Charter Academy, which serves about 600 students, paid its superintendent Robbie Moore $426,620 in 2023, nearly double his base salary of $215,100, the latest available federal tax filings show. Pay for Mollie Purcell Mozley of Faith Family Academy, another Dallas-area charter school superintendent, hit a high of $560,000 in 2021, despite a contracted salary of $306,000. She continued to receive more than $400,000 during each of the two subsequent years, according to tax filings.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Funny how folks all gung-ho on finding waste, fraud, and abuse never seem to pick on these really big, politically connected wasters, fraudsters, and abusers.
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But, but, but. . . it’s a state function. Cain’t be havin any Federal oversight that is bloated and biased.
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While Trump bulldozes government agencies under the guise of waste and fraud, there is scant attention given to the waste and fraud of privatizers, the private companies that are parasites on the common good. Privatization is rife with abuse of inflated salaries, sweeps contracts, and crooked real estate deals wherein companies rent buildings to themselves at inflated rates. Then, in true parasitic practice all that wasteful spending gets deducted from the budgets of public schools that had nothing to do with all the waste and fraud. Kudos to NPE for keeping a running tab on charter school fraud and waste. They are recording the data that outlines how highly inefficient and wasteful the privatization of public education is.https://networkforpubliceducation.org/charter-scandals/
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Putting taxpayer dollars in the pockets of politicians pals is how campaigns get funded. It’s all about the grift.
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The Superintendent of Faith Family Academy purchased a home worth over a million dollars in December 2020, yet under her leadership the school has earned an “F” rating for three consecutive years. Parents who want to verify these failing scores will struggle to find them, as the Superintendent refuses to post them publicly as required.
Her contract guarantees a base salary well above $300,000 per year, and with benefits and incentives she takes home over $500,000 annually. The contract protects her from ever receiving a pay cut—she is only eligible for raises, even as student outcomes continue to decline. How does someone get rewarded more for consistently failing students?
The school board is no better. Roughly half of the board members responsible for financial oversight are her own family, and about three-quarters (still a part of her family) of the board work/preach at the same church, creating obvious conflicts of interest. Instead of prioritizing students and parents, Faith Family Academy has become a system that profits off the backs of Black and Brown children while delivering little in return.
Adding to the hypocrisy, the Superintendent’s own children do not attend Faith Family Academy. They are enrolled in private school. If Faith Family Academy is supposed to be a “top-class” institution, why wouldn’t her own family attend? The reality is clear: while other people’s children are left behind, her children are given the best opportunities money can buy—opportunities funded by taxpayers who were promised something better.
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