Conservators oversee IDEA Public Schools
The Texas Education Agency on Wednesday appointed a pair of conservators to oversee IDEA Public Schools, the state’s largest network of charter schools, following a multiyear investigation into alleged financial misconduct.
The conservators will have the power to direct school leaders to comply with a state corrective action plan. Failure to fix the problems could lead to a state takeover, like what happened at Houston Independent School District.
In a written statement, IDEA said the network is “pleased to have reached a settlement agreement” with the state and acknowledged past financial issues.
“Before 2020, the priority at IDEA was rapid growth, but there lacked a parallel emphasis on ensuring that the funds fueling that growth were properly administered and documented as required by law,” the statement said. “IDEA has since installed new board members and executive leadership, enlarged the staff responsible for grant management and compliance, and strengthened internal controls and auditing procedures.”
Over the last decade, IDEA has faced various state investigations of misconduct and misuse of funds. Hearst Newspapers in 2019 reported the network had purchased luxury driver services, bought private boxes at Spurs games and spent $15 million to lease a private jet, which came shortly after promising TEA that IDEA would be “strictly enforcing” new fiscal responsibility policies.
The revelations led to the departure of the charter networks’ founders and executives Tom Torkelson and Joann Gama, a federal audit and the state’s latest investigation “into numerous allegations against the charter district of financial and operational impropriety.”
TEA announced Wednesday that the inquiry had ended, and as part of a settlement it had appointed two conservators — South Carolina charter school network CEO Christopher Ruszkowski and David Lee, a consultant working with TEA — to “support … improvement of financial systems and controls.”
They will be tasked with “overseeing and directing any action of the district and/or governance team,” “conducting onsite inspections,” creating a plan to address issues identified in the TEA investigation, keeping tabs on IDEA on behalf of the state and “directing the board to remove board members in the event of observed board member misconduct.”
The network has more than 60 campuses statewide, including 15 in the San Antonio area, and is funded by taxpayer dollars. In the 2022-23 school year, the most recent data available, IDEA received more than $800 million in state funds.
Leading the network now is Jeff Cottrill, a former TEA deputy commissioner in charge of the agency’s audits and investigations division who was brought on as IDEA’S superintendent in 2022.
In recent weeks, Gama settled a discrimination lawsuit against IDEA, reportedly for $475,000. She’d said in court documents that she was as a “scapegoat” for the misconduct of Torkelson — who’d received a $900,000 severance package — and others.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Education recently closed an audit into IDEA that ran from 2016 through 2021, according to discussions during IDEA board meetings. Since 2010, IDEA has received nearly $300 million in federal Charter School Program grants. IDEA was required to pay back nearly $29 million received from federal grants.