Why is the federal government building the 7th largest school district in Texas?
And what do the residents of Texas actually have to say about the impact in their districts and neighborhoods?
Revisiting the federal ED charter school program for a quick moment today and I just had to comment on the shocking amount of federal money going into Texas.
First of all is the grant amount awarded in 2017 cycle to Texas Education Agency and Wisconsin DPI as part of the broader “State Entities” (more) grants program. How will Wisconsin districts absorb another $96 MILLION in creating new charter schools? I can’t see any scenario where nearly $100 million spent on new charter seats in Wisconsin doesn’t result in enrollment losses in whichever districts these schools ultimately land in. Districts will be tipped into crisis without thoughtful...oh never mind its Wisconsin: that is the point.
The latest grant to Texas Education Agency for $59 million. But more outrageous is the grant given to IDEA which brings the total federal grants under CSP to this charter chain to $108.4 million since 2010. The link here goes to the full list of awardees. IDEA got $14.3 million in 2010, $15.0 million in 2014, $11.9 million in 2016 and $67.2 million in 2017.
Yes, we now have our first federally created $100 million charter chain. So certainly IDEA must be worth it. All you have to do is ask them and they’ll tell you (here’s their narrative to the CSP panel).
IDEA Public Schools, which currently serves a student population across Texas that is 88.6% economically disadvantaged, will use CSP funding to further expand in Austin, the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio and will replicate its model in a new Texas region: Tarrant/Fort Worth, Over the next five years, the iDEA network will grow its high performing CMO from 51 to 143 schools and will increase the number of low-income, high-needs students it serves from the 29,334 currently enrolled to a projected 81,700 by the end of the CSP funding period in 2021-22. While this rate of growth may seem ambitious, it is important to note that IDEA has grown from one small school with 150 students in 2001 to the fastest growing network of tuition-free, PREK-12 public charter schools in the United States.
GRAPHIC IS TITLED: IDEA’S GROWTH PLAN THROUGH 2021-22
That is mind boggling. The continue: “IDEA’s big goal is to serve 100,000 students by 2022.”
To put that into perspective: the quickest best list I could find for Texas’ largest districts in 2018 puts the Fort Worth ISD at #5 in the state with 86,000 students and the Austin ISD at #6 in the state with 85,000 students.
How is this possible?
I didn’t do exhaustive search but found at least a straight new story in the San Antonio News Express when IDEA got the grant in October 2017:
With more than 9,000 students now in its Bexar County schools, IDEA plans to build 10 more in the next five years — eight of them funded with nearly $17 million from the federal grant — to boost enrollment to 21,000, said Rolando Posada, its executive director for the region.
Another $18.4 million from the grant will fund more schools in the Rio Grande Valley.
IDEA schools have done well on Texas academic assessments. In this year’s accountability ratings, all of its schools met academic requirements and many won additional “distinctions.”
A preliminary rating under Texas’ new A-F grading system, which will start at the district level next year, awarded IDEA a “B” in the first of the system’s four indexes, student performance — and an “A” in each of the other three: student progress, narrowing achievement gaps among disadvantaged students and postsecondary readiness.
Posada said IDEA has been able to grow “alarmingly quickly” without sacrificing educational quality by deliberately setting “outlandish expectations” — aiming to enroll all students in college even in areas like San Antonio that have relatively few college graduates, and establishing stringent accountability structures and an “environment of continuous improvement.”
The other thing that must be said is this federal stimulus to IDEA is also kicking off hundreds of millions in facilities bonds to construct the buildings with many more millions to follow this 2017 grant. So the federal grants have the extra topping of whipped cream privatization for the transfer of state aid into pockets of the bondholders.
In 2014 IDEA raised $90.6 million in bond revenue for:
IDEA will issue the Bonds for the purpose of i) financing and refinancing the acquisition and development of MLK campus, Brownsville Campus #3 and Austin Campus #2 (as defined in Appendix B), ii) financing and refinancing the cost of Phase 2 of the South Flores Campus, the Carver College Prep Campus and the Allan Campus (as defined in Appendix B), iii) financing and refinancing the acquisition of land for three future campuses in San Antonio and one future campus in Mission, iv) financing and refinancing improvements to the San Juan Campus (as defined in Appendix B), v) financing and refinancing the acquisition and development of a new headquarter facilities and vi) refunding the Refunded Bonds more particularly described in Schedule I.
And again in 2015 IDEA raised additional $70.1 million for:
IDEA will issue the bonds for the purpose of financing and/or refinancing: i) the development of North Mission Campus, Judson Campus, Waters Edge Campus and Bluff Springs Campus (as defined in Appendix B), ii) additional improvements at the Weslaco Pike Campus, the Walzen Campus and the Monterrey Park Campus (as defined in Appendix B), iii) other capital improvements across existing campuses including the addition of classroom space, iv) improvements at IDEA’s headquarters, and v) acquisition of land for future expansion…IDEA currently operates forty four charter schools two at each of twenty two campuses in the Rio Grande Valley, Austin and San Antonio and plans to begin operations at six schools at three additional campuses in August 2016.
So if you calculate the approximately $160 million in bond revenue in those two issuances was spread around 14 campuses (28 schools) then IDEA’s estimated future facilities finance needs would be around $500 million (for their project 90+ new schools per their plan above).
I hope someone in Texas figures out where democratic oversight ought to take place over this private charter district and its un-elected CEO Tom Torkelson.








