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Also: Feds Approve $33.2 Million for Texas Charters
Commissioner’s Approval of Expanding
IDEA Charter Network Draws Criticism
The state’s largest charter network is getting even larger, with the announcement (reported here) that the education commissioner has approved IDEA Public Schools to add 12 campuses next school year and to increase its enrollment cap by about 15,000 students.
The approved amendments will allow the charter network, which currently has more than 60 campuses in Texas, to raise its maximum enrollment to 98,000 students. The charter’s official 2019-20 enrollment was 49,480.
The network had applied to the commissioner to open 27 schools next school year, but 12 were approved and 15 were rejected. Two new IDEA campuses each were approved for Odessa, La Joya, San Antonio, El Paso, Fort Worth and Lake Houston.
IDEA has drawn criticism recently after the disclosure of its since-abandoned plans to lease a charter jet, spending on luxury boxes at San Antonio’s AT&T Center and a $900,000 separation agreement with former IDEA CEO Tom Torkelson. Officials of the network have pledged to reform their practices.
News of the commissioner’s approval of the IDEA’s expansion was criticized by the state’s ISD-oriented associations (such as the Texas State Teachers Association), which had unsuccessfully called for a moratorium on the granting of new charters and on the approval of all amendments to add additional grades and/or campuses to existing charters.
Federal Charter Grants
In related news, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced (Oct. 2) that Texas will receive $33.2 million in charter grants — $23.2 million to the TEA for high quality charter school expansion and $10 million to the Texas Public Finance Authority to allow charters to obtain public financing through taxpayer-backed bonds.