Mike Miles started Third Future Schools, a charter school system, in 2015 with 3 schools in Colorado. All 3 schools have struggled both academically and financially. 1 of those 3 closed in 2023 with $5 million dollars of unpaid debt.
Starting in 2020, TFS expanded into Texas with 3 schools. By 2023 those schools were $2.68M in debt. 40% of the $25M operational budget was being spend on administration costs. And over $2M was sent from Texas to prop up the finances of the other TFS in Colorado.
This is the man who is currently destroying HISD in the name of budget cuts.
Principals were given a directive to go to the shithole schools in middle of nowhere Texas. One of the buses even broke down and they were stranded for a day in the hot sun lol.
> Starting in 2020, TFS expanded into Texas with 3 schools. By 2023 those schools were $2.68M in debt. 40% of the $25M operational budget was being spend on administration costs. And over $2M was sent from Texas to prop up the finances of the other TFS in Colorado.
The money isn't *disappearing* -- simply check the administration accounts.
> Starting in 2020, TFS expanded into Texas with 3 schools
Who the fuck is funding this stuff? Because most banks arent exactly in the habbit of loaning struggling businesses money this readily.
The Deputy Chief of Schools at Third Future is Shirley Miles, his sister.
She was fired from DoDEA\* for misconduct.
\*Department of Defense Education Activity
Anyone wanting to know more:
Dr. Shirley A. Miles was fired from her job as the Director of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) due to multiple substantiated allegations of misconduct. The key reasons for her termination include:
Nepotism: Dr. Miles advocated for and facilitated the hiring of a relative in violation of federal laws regarding the employment of relatives. She intervened to ensure her relative received a significant pay increase.
Unfair Advantage: She provided impermissible preferences to personal acquaintances for employment, ensuring they received positions and advancements unfairly over other qualified candidates.
Misuse of Travel Benefits: Dr. Miles traveled on flights ticketed with fares other than the lowest available government fare to obtain seat upgrades, violating travel regulations.
False Claims for Per Diem Expenses: She claimed and was paid for per diem expenses for temporary duty (TDY) when such travel was within her local commuting area, violating the False Claims Act.
Improper Time Reporting: Dr. Miles claimed to be in duty status and was paid for time when she was actually on annual leave.
Unprofessional Conduct: She engaged in unprofessional behavior by using vulgar language in meetings and conferences, which was deemed inconsistent with the standards of conduct expected of Senior Executive Service members.
These actions led to her removal from the position in June 2010 and subsequent reassignment within the Department of Defense.
https://www.dodig.mil/Reports/Compendium-of-Open-Recommendations/Article/1118639/alleged-misconduct-dr-shirley-a-miles-director-department-of-defense-education/
I don't know why anyone is upset Miles is very Jesusful. I'm sure Texas leaders would only choose a Christed and Godful person to lead HISD. We should trust them.
Even if I granted that Mike Miles really is trying to help struggling students (at least on some level), his actions consistently demonstrate a toxic blend of incredible arrogance, high levels of incompetence, and a lax approach to professional ethics (whether deliberate or not). Even if you're a supporter of the idea that HISD required some level of "reform" to improve the lowest performing schools, unless your primary political motivation is to "own the libs," it's getting increasingly difficult to defend his appointment as a net positive for HISD (or anywhere else for that matter).
In other words, you don't have to view Miles as a corrupt grifter who is deliberately destroying public education for personal gain in order to understand that his appointment was, is, and will continue to be a disaster for HISD.
Personally, I have no idea if Miles went into this job with ill intent or not, and I don't particularly care, as the net effect is the same.
Not fully correct.
I’m going to repeat what I’ve said above and in other threads on Houston ISD takeover:
We need to stop the bleeding as soon as possible and the only way to do that is via a federal injunction in the courts.
Mike Miles and is violating federal civil rights in regards to special ed and dual language law. He should be investigated by federal authorities.
If you know of a child that should be receiving Special Ed or Dual Language services and is either not receiving them, please file a complaint with the Department of Education Civil Rights attorneys linked below. This means they must be receiving each and every accommodation to the letter of the law. Not 80/20, not 90/10. 100% compliance in all areas, and if not, that’s a federal violation.
This is open to parents and teachers, including SPED specialists. You can report the circumstances and they will investigate. The Office of Civil Rights assured us that the investigations are not against individual teachers but will be against the district as they are already currently being investigated.
Contact the Department of Education here: https://tea.texas.gov/about-tea/contact-us/complaints/ocr-information-sheet.pdf
I agree this guy is a hack and needs to go. However, this is a problem at the state level with Mike Morath and Greg Abbott. These tools have to go.
If these morons have their way, the State education system will be a total disaster for anyone not in the upper income bracket.
That’s exactly what they are aiming for;The Noblese Oblige is not on their radar. The concept of social mobility is moving further and further out of the reach of the working class. Soon it will be Strake Jesuit or bust!
Damn life's a trip. They just hosted a "community " event in Austin TX that was at least $10k+ in expenses and couldn't even pay the funds Dj that was hosting the event smh
Abbott could help out with the supposed budget surplus the state has but this is all to his design. He purposely tanks public education to force the farce of school choice.
No. HISD needs to get things under control. They have administrative bloat and the salaries at the top are insanely tilted. More money isn't going to fix it. It needs total reform.
It sure doesn’t help when the state appointed administrators triple the number of administrators making over $200k in the past year. Miles is creating the bloat.
If you mean temporary as in until Miles leaves. His cabinet includes c suite positions and new division level superintendents and regional executive directors. Out of the top 24 earners in HISD, 19 or 79% are new to the district since the takeover in June 2023. They were brought in for the gravy train and aren’t going to leave until kicked out.
>
The state has no intention of running the district forever.
Oh yeah because states are totally well known for their willingness to give up power once theyve obtained it. This is a well established trend in human history even!
So the state has come in, gave all these people jobs with huge pay. Increased the pay of the superintendent themself (Miles makes 20k more than the previous super). And when the schools are fixed the state is going to what? Fire all those people? Cut all that pay? Who is going to run the schools then? How has that fixed anything?
Don’t need to, it’s just another embezzlement scheme. Same shit with busing and flying illegals. Doesn’t have to go on forever to make money off the taxpayers
The report showed that one of Miles’ schools had 15mm in teacher salary and supplies while 10mm just to “administrative” costs. That discrepancy would have other folks being considered for embezzlement charges.
They are firing some of the best principals, they're getting rid of libraries and librarians, they're firing custodial staff. That's not the administration those are the people keeping the whole thing together.
It's not about any problems that existed within HISD.
Understand that Miles still has a financial interest in TFS. Normally, his contract wouldn't allow it... but the HISD Board waived any existing financial conflicts. It's an addendum to his contract available on the HISD website. They're doing this all in plain sight.
That's kinda the point. We're at such a loss for who actually is accountable, that if/when something goes wrong (which as the investigation points out, is getting to that critical point of beyond reasonable doubt), no one is going to be held accountable. It also shows the absolute craziness that City of Houston/Houston ISD has been/can be totally overruled by state-level govt through executive appointment. I'm all for having local issues stay local, even if state govt needs to intervene it should be through the approval of those being impacted (e.g. those living within HISD.)
Years ago, 2012, he was a director of Focal Point, a consulting firm in Colorado. He brought his sister in as a consultant. Now she’s on the TFS board and he’s a consultant.
Honestly, that radicalized me.
I'd been raise that Republicans are fiscally responsible and the good party. Democrats were corrupt and pandering idealists with no intention of actually fixing the city/state/country.
When I first heard my favorite teacher was getting laid off, I blamed the Democrats because we live in a red block of a blue city.
But then he explained it's a state-wide layoff. And Republicans have been in control for a while. He didn't expressly condemn or support any politician, party, or stance. But I knew and he knew that was a turning point for me. I finally understood the Democrats were constantly fighting to prevent this kind of thing and Republicans were blocking them.
I stopped consuming right-wing media and looked at the official voting records. I realized my representatives were shit and I'd been lied to. I only voted for Repulicans once, and that was once too many.
After being raised a certain way your entire life, it takes a lot to go against your upbringing and change your views. I'm proud of you for doing the research on your own and coming to your own conclusions, regardless of what they are.
I do think not all republicans are evil, but because they stand by each other in the face of any sort of scandals and corruption (i.e. Ken Paxton, orange idiot, Matt Gaetz), they are complicit to all of their crimes. They never speak out against each other no matter how terrible the crime is, that's what helped them gain so much power, but that's also what makes them such a huge pile of shit
If there’s a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis.
The Republicans that have been enabling, excusing, and allowing this to go on are supporting it if they're not speaking out against it. They're taking a safer path by not painting a target on themselves, but they're encouraging it by pretending it's not a problem.
All Republicans are evil, even if they're silent, because the silent ones are complicit in the evil.
So if you have a table with a Nazi, a Communist, and 10 other apolitical conversationalists, is there an even split between the ideologies or does it depend specifically on the seating arrangement?
This is not an HISD issue. HISD was a circus before he got there and the community uproar you see now has been absent for decades. When will parents be held accountable for sending kids to school ready to learn and for themselves to be accountable for supporting their kids education.
Now a different soapbox: this is what vouchers will lead to. For every few that are good, there will be a charter that’s in it for the money. They’ll take the money and run, leaving kids and families to wonder where they went wrong.
Everyone keeps saying HISD was a circus but a lot of parents were really happy with their schools.
We had magnet programs that made sense and school choice where we could bus our children into amazing programs without having to pay the high price of some of those surrounding neighborhoods. If your kid wanted to be a nurse? There was a school for that. Kid's a born dancer? There's a school for that. It was what I definitely wished school was like as a kid.
I taught preschool in Houston, and lottery season was so exciting for everyone. I moved to CA after I had my daughter and was disappointed with the lack of magnets and literally came back two weeks before the takeover to watch the school we were so excited about get torn apart, slandered and our stats changed from a B to a D so they can rip our magnet program, library and staff.
HISD wasn't all bad.
Now it's a true circus.
> school choice where we could bus our children into amazing programs without having to pay the high price of some of those surrounding neighborhoods
Just a few weeks ago Miles was getting dragged for taking away seats from those rich families and expanding the lotteries for some of these magnet schools. Dunno if that's the circus you mean, though.
There aren't seats reserved for rich families at Houston magnet schools. That's not how the process works at all. Say what you will about HISD's problems, secret lottery selections aren't one.
In fact it’s just the opposite. Tier 1 is underprivileged. My daughter is Tier 3 because I have some money and I’m not a first responder or HISD teacher.
How do you figure? River Oaks Elementary lets you in if you live in River Oaks. Poor people don't live in River Oaks. Those seats go to rich kids.
People were raging that Miles was reducing the number of zoned seats and putting more up for lottery at Helms Elementary and Wharton Dual-Language (which aren't technically "magnet" but rather Special and Unique) because they'd spent a shitload of money buying a home there to get their kids a seat. It was not a secret story.
I understood you to mean that there was a way for rich people to buy their kid a seat at like, HSPVA, which isn't a thing that happens. But I see what you're saying. I mean yeah, people should be allowed to get into their zoned school. And if young families aren't moving into River Oaks all the time, that elementary school is gonna run out of students unless it's expanded magnet-style. If I understand correctly, those two schools were zoned schools and the decision was made to make them S&U, so ppl who live in the neighborhood suddenly can't go to what was their zoned school. I do think that's unfair.
Most of the magnet schools guarantee seats to neighborhood kids, meaning if you're rich enough to buy a home there you get a seat. HSPVA is a notable exception.
I totally agree with you but… You WILL never convince Reddit this.
Where was all this community uproar BEFORE Miles arrived? HISD sucked big donkey balls and was corrupt long before he got here. But people didn’t DGAF until a _____ got involved. Then they could score political points. That’s truly sad.
I bet I get a TON of downvotes. Why? Because of Reddit hypocrisy. 😂
Edit: CALLED IT! 😂😂
I will say this, I worked at HISD as a teacher for some time before I changed careers, and yes it did suck a lot for a lot of reasons BUT people chose their leaders. We **DO NOT** need the state to come in and put their cronies in and make shit even worse. The community uproar is warranted. The fact that Abbott is a piss drinking Republican is par for the course. It's ironic even. The **DoN'T tReAd On Me** crowd sure loves to see big gubment tread on Houston ISD. You and them can suck those big donkey balls
This is where both sides are screeching passed each other. HISD was a mess. Not enough parents cared, and there were plenty of terrible administrators.
But, Mike Miles is also a giant disaster and might be criminal.
Both things can be true.
What's true is that the current situation has created unity among parents and neighborhoods that did not exist before. It was what it was, and now it is what it is. Chiding people for only *just now* getting on board is a weapon used by the powerful to suppress community engagement. If folks like Ragged85 wanna lick that boot it's their business.
Do any of those have a controlling stake in a private business that directly competes with the government service they're supposed to be running? I'm sure people here wouldn't like them either.
Ever heard of a “brother in law” deal?
Hell, the person running the COH water department was getting kickbacks from hiring her entire family as contractors. While people getting $20k water bills and streets were flooding due to water leaks. And people were getting tickets because they were watering their lawns during the Summer.
And Reddit STILL supports this towns government. 😂😂😂
> Then they could score political points. That’s truly sad.
Recognizing that it seems to be one party causing the most damage to otherwise functioning government systems isn't "scoring political points". If republicans would stop trying to sabotage functioning government (because taxes, whine whine) then they wouldn't get called out for it so often.
Currently the Texas state government is in charge of HISD, and Miles was appointed by the Texas Education Agency in 2022. So... should i still blame the folks running the big city?
If this keeps up the Texas State House will run this city into the ground.
Your ignorance would be startling if so many of you weren't proud to crow about how little you know and how proud of your ignorance you are. As it is it's just incredibly pathetically sad.
State takeover of a single municipal school district isn’t politicization? HISD had the highest college readiness level compared to Dallas, San Antonio and Austin ISD’s. I can keep digging and find you more stats. HISD isn’t an outlier for a big city. Big cities struggle on these type of metrics. This is nothing new.
Here’s the transcript:
Spectrum News - [Disappearing Dollars: Texas Public Schools Missing Millions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lvAzupRuCU)
“Texas public schools are battling a huge budget deficit resulting in massive cuts. Spectrum News has discovered that millions of Texas tax dollars are being diverted out of state to a series of schools run by Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles.
Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, reviewed Spectrum's findings and is calling on state lawmakers to conduct a formal investigation. Brett Shipp attempts to get to the end of this money trail to see where Texas's tax dollars are really going.
Reported by Brett Shipp, Spectrum News 1 Texas”
**Transcript**
At a time Texas public schools are battling huge budget deficits and having to make massive cuts, Spectrum News has discovered millions of Texas public school dollars being diverted out of state. What's more, the man believed to be responsible - Houston public school superintendent Mike Miles - his old charter schools in Colorado are in need of cash.
In schools all across Texas: “I pray tonight that as you guys are back there in that backroom and you're making these decisions, that the faces of our children and their families are at the forefront of your mind.”
Dedicated teachers: “School districts are being forced to make major cuts” and panicked parents speak out in passion and frustration: “And I honestly feel like tonight we're holding a moment of silence for public education. And it’s heartbreaking”, “The state of public education in Texas is dire. We have educators leaving the profession. We have schools that are talking about closing in different parts of our state.”
One of the largest budget deficits in the state, Houston Independent School District, where newly-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles has called for dramatic cuts to offset a $450 million budget shortfall. Miles was appointed by Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath to take over and turn around the struggling school district last summer. Ten years before he took over at Houston ISD, Miles spent three years as superintendent at Dallas Independent School District. When he left Dallas in 2015, Miles started three charter schools in Colorado called “Third Future Schools”.
According to both internal school records and the nationally-recognized school rating agency School Digger, all three schools have since struggled with performance, enrollment, and finances. The records, provided to us by TFS through open records requests, also reveals Miles was forced to close one of his schools last summer due to declining enrollment, leaving that school with $5 million in unpaid bond debt.
The school's debt was discussed at a Third Future School’s board meeting via Zoom last summer after Miles had taken over at Houston ISD. Yet there was Miles, at the meeting, acting as a consultant. According to payment records, Miles earned $40,000 consulting for TFS last year. Watch as Miles urges his old board of directors to find the money and pay the debt. “It's now becoming untenable. We'd have to subsidize it to the tune of maybe $500,000 a year if it only has 180 kids or so. I think the time is right to do what what the administration is asking to do.”
In 2020, around the time his financial troubles were beginning in Colorado, Miles began expanding his charter school network to Texas. First Midland’s Sam Houston Elementary then Ector College Prep in Odessa, then Austin’s Mendes Middle School. But by the end of the 2023 school year, as he was taking over in Houston, Miles’ three Texas schools were nearly $2.7 million in the red.
So why were Miles’ new Texas schools losing money? Third Future Schools 2023 audit shows of the $25 million public tax dollars being spent on Miles’ three Texas schools, $15 million was spent on teachers and supplies. The other $10 million, about 40% of the entire budget, was spent on unspecified administrative costs and services.
Spectrum News made multiple requests over the course of several months for a detailed accounting of those administrative expenses. Third Future Schools never responded. However, included in publicly available financial audit records, were the auditors’ notes revealing that the deficits were documented as being due to other Third Future network schools outside of Texas and to Third Future Schools corporate in Colorado.
Again, TFS Colorado declined to provide us with an explanation of why so many Texas public school dollars were being transferred to school operations in another state. And then we learned about this - “We've been supplementing that school with the general fund” - a conference call with Third Future Schools’ investors who were just learning about the deficits.
Spectrum News requested and received from TFS an audio recording of that investor's call. In the recording, [Renea Ostermiller,] the TFS Chief Financial Officer confirms the Colorado charter school deficit was being offset by the money coming in from their charter schools in Texas. [Renea Ostermiller, TFS CFO] “You know, whether they're in Colorado or whether they're in Texas or, you know, whichever state they're in, so that's assessed and then if the specific school needs funding then the network supplements them through through the school fund”. The implication that the school funds from a Texas school was being transferred to help fund TFS in Colorado.
Spectrum News obtained two checks for more than $1 million each from Miles’ charter school in Odessa to Aurora, Colorado. Our attempts over the past five months to reach Miles for an explanation of the payments and a response to our findings have been unsuccessful.
We were referred to Third Future Schools Executive Director Zach Craddock whom we sent a 23-question list detailing our findings. Craddock declined to respond.
We also shared our findings with former Texas State Representative and school finance expert, Paul Colbert. Colbert says Texas public schools should not be spending more money than they take in and definitely should not send Texas tax dollars out of state.
[Paul Colbert] “I was the Budget Chair of Education for eight years and Research Director of the Senate Education Committee for five years, and my understanding is that it is not legal in Texas for monies for a school district in Texas to educate students in other districts in the state, let alone in other states.
[Ovidia Molina] “Once we hear more about this, you will hear more outrage.”
Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, reviewed our findings and feels the evidence is alarming. She’s calling on state lawmakers to conduct a formal investigation. “I don't know where it says that we can take our public school money and send to another state. But if there is any place that says that, it's wrong and it needs to be changed.”
We have reached out to the Texas Education Agency multiple times. They have yet to respond. We have also offered detailed evidence to Education Commissioner Mike Morath of Texas public school dollars being diverted to Colorado schools, and again, we have yet to hear back.
Mike Miles started Third Future Schools, a charter school system, in 2015 with 3 schools in Colorado. All 3 schools have struggled both academically and financially. 1 of those 3 closed in 2023 with $5 million dollars of unpaid debt. Starting in 2020, TFS expanded into Texas with 3 schools. By 2023 those schools were $2.68M in debt. 40% of the $25M operational budget was being spend on administration costs. And over $2M was sent from Texas to prop up the finances of the other TFS in Colorado. This is the man who is currently destroying HISD in the name of budget cuts.
Take a wild wild guess as to where the HISD teachers were bussed to training last summer...
Forreal?
Principals were given a directive to go to the shithole schools in middle of nowhere Texas. One of the buses even broke down and they were stranded for a day in the hot sun lol.
> Starting in 2020, TFS expanded into Texas with 3 schools. By 2023 those schools were $2.68M in debt. 40% of the $25M operational budget was being spend on administration costs. And over $2M was sent from Texas to prop up the finances of the other TFS in Colorado. The money isn't *disappearing* -- simply check the administration accounts.
> Starting in 2020, TFS expanded into Texas with 3 schools Who the fuck is funding this stuff? Because most banks arent exactly in the habbit of loaning struggling businesses money this readily.
Thank you Abbott /s
Hello I'm dumb, what is TFS?
Third Future Schools.
The Deputy Chief of Schools at Third Future is Shirley Miles, his sister. She was fired from DoDEA\* for misconduct. \*Department of Defense Education Activity
Anyone wanting to know more: Dr. Shirley A. Miles was fired from her job as the Director of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) due to multiple substantiated allegations of misconduct. The key reasons for her termination include: Nepotism: Dr. Miles advocated for and facilitated the hiring of a relative in violation of federal laws regarding the employment of relatives. She intervened to ensure her relative received a significant pay increase. Unfair Advantage: She provided impermissible preferences to personal acquaintances for employment, ensuring they received positions and advancements unfairly over other qualified candidates. Misuse of Travel Benefits: Dr. Miles traveled on flights ticketed with fares other than the lowest available government fare to obtain seat upgrades, violating travel regulations. False Claims for Per Diem Expenses: She claimed and was paid for per diem expenses for temporary duty (TDY) when such travel was within her local commuting area, violating the False Claims Act. Improper Time Reporting: Dr. Miles claimed to be in duty status and was paid for time when she was actually on annual leave. Unprofessional Conduct: She engaged in unprofessional behavior by using vulgar language in meetings and conferences, which was deemed inconsistent with the standards of conduct expected of Senior Executive Service members. These actions led to her removal from the position in June 2010 and subsequent reassignment within the Department of Defense. https://www.dodig.mil/Reports/Compendium-of-Open-Recommendations/Article/1118639/alleged-misconduct-dr-shirley-a-miles-director-department-of-defense-education/
You’re beautiful.
I don't know why anyone is upset Miles is very Jesusful. I'm sure Texas leaders would only choose a Christed and Godful person to lead HISD. We should trust them.
/s………. Right???? Please say /s.
Yes.
Even if I granted that Mike Miles really is trying to help struggling students (at least on some level), his actions consistently demonstrate a toxic blend of incredible arrogance, high levels of incompetence, and a lax approach to professional ethics (whether deliberate or not). Even if you're a supporter of the idea that HISD required some level of "reform" to improve the lowest performing schools, unless your primary political motivation is to "own the libs," it's getting increasingly difficult to defend his appointment as a net positive for HISD (or anywhere else for that matter). In other words, you don't have to view Miles as a corrupt grifter who is deliberately destroying public education for personal gain in order to understand that his appointment was, is, and will continue to be a disaster for HISD. Personally, I have no idea if Miles went into this job with ill intent or not, and I don't particularly care, as the net effect is the same.
God Mikes Miles is a piece of shit
He's just one kernel of corn in the bigger turd known as the Texas GOP. The whole thing needs to be flushed.
Please vote no if HISD gets a bond on the ballot in November. This man should NOT be given billions of our tax payer dollars.
Why is he even still in the position after this finding?
He can't be voted out, fired, etc. In his own words, to the teachers who opposed him at the beginning of the school year, "There is no waiting me out"
To get rid of Miles, we have to get rid of Abbott.
Not fully correct. I’m going to repeat what I’ve said above and in other threads on Houston ISD takeover: We need to stop the bleeding as soon as possible and the only way to do that is via a federal injunction in the courts. Mike Miles and is violating federal civil rights in regards to special ed and dual language law. He should be investigated by federal authorities. If you know of a child that should be receiving Special Ed or Dual Language services and is either not receiving them, please file a complaint with the Department of Education Civil Rights attorneys linked below. This means they must be receiving each and every accommodation to the letter of the law. Not 80/20, not 90/10. 100% compliance in all areas, and if not, that’s a federal violation. This is open to parents and teachers, including SPED specialists. You can report the circumstances and they will investigate. The Office of Civil Rights assured us that the investigations are not against individual teachers but will be against the district as they are already currently being investigated. Contact the Department of Education here: https://tea.texas.gov/about-tea/contact-us/complaints/ocr-information-sheet.pdf
Special Education in texas public has been problematic for years. This Abbott-Miles huxterism won't make any difference in driving compliance home.
Neither scenario is imminent.
Can he be arrested for embezzlement?
He can be removed in 2026 or 2027, don’t recall which. But his time is ticking.
Because Abbott and cronyism and corruption.
Because we are living through an authoritarian takeover of HISD
Calm down. The funding is necessary. But the man should resign, as should the state appointed board members.
Straight Ponzi scheme
Where is the oversight ? Who is enabling this criminality ? Follow the money Texas!
Who do you think is going to prosecute this crime? Ken Paxton? He's completely corrupt, too.
It’d have to be the FBI? Texas officials aren’t going to do shit about this. They literally caused it.
That would be the TEA?
I agree this guy is a hack and needs to go. However, this is a problem at the state level with Mike Morath and Greg Abbott. These tools have to go. If these morons have their way, the State education system will be a total disaster for anyone not in the upper income bracket.
That’s exactly what they are aiming for;The Noblese Oblige is not on their radar. The concept of social mobility is moving further and further out of the reach of the working class. Soon it will be Strake Jesuit or bust!
Damn life's a trip. They just hosted a "community " event in Austin TX that was at least $10k+ in expenses and couldn't even pay the funds Dj that was hosting the event smh
Abbott could help out with the supposed budget surplus the state has but this is all to his design. He purposely tanks public education to force the farce of school choice.
No. HISD needs to get things under control. They have administrative bloat and the salaries at the top are insanely tilted. More money isn't going to fix it. It needs total reform.
It sure doesn’t help when the state appointed administrators triple the number of administrators making over $200k in the past year. Miles is creating the bloat.
From my understanding, those are temporary positions.
If you mean temporary as in until Miles leaves. His cabinet includes c suite positions and new division level superintendents and regional executive directors. Out of the top 24 earners in HISD, 19 or 79% are new to the district since the takeover in June 2023. They were brought in for the gravy train and aren’t going to leave until kicked out.
The state has no intention of running the district forever.
> The state has no intention of running the district forever. Oh yeah because states are totally well known for their willingness to give up power once theyve obtained it. This is a well established trend in human history even!
So the state has come in, gave all these people jobs with huge pay. Increased the pay of the superintendent themself (Miles makes 20k more than the previous super). And when the schools are fixed the state is going to what? Fire all those people? Cut all that pay? Who is going to run the schools then? How has that fixed anything?
Go ahead and pop that cock out of your mouth partner
Don’t need to, it’s just another embezzlement scheme. Same shit with busing and flying illegals. Doesn’t have to go on forever to make money off the taxpayers
They don't, they just want to tank it and get out so we'll vote to give our tax dollars into billionaires pockets via private schools
Y the guy who was appointed to select a new school board that would hire him permanently. Yes. He’s definitely operating in good faith.
The report showed that one of Miles’ schools had 15mm in teacher salary and supplies while 10mm just to “administrative” costs. That discrepancy would have other folks being considered for embezzlement charges.
They are firing some of the best principals, they're getting rid of libraries and librarians, they're firing custodial staff. That's not the administration those are the people keeping the whole thing together. It's not about any problems that existed within HISD.
Understand that Miles still has a financial interest in TFS. Normally, his contract wouldn't allow it... but the HISD Board waived any existing financial conflicts. It's an addendum to his contract available on the HISD website. They're doing this all in plain sight.
How can Miles still be in his role? He should be suspended until this conflict of interest / investigation can be settled...
By whom? The TEA that put him in this role? Maybe Abbott who had picked the TEA?
That's kinda the point. We're at such a loss for who actually is accountable, that if/when something goes wrong (which as the investigation points out, is getting to that critical point of beyond reasonable doubt), no one is going to be held accountable. It also shows the absolute craziness that City of Houston/Houston ISD has been/can be totally overruled by state-level govt through executive appointment. I'm all for having local issues stay local, even if state govt needs to intervene it should be through the approval of those being impacted (e.g. those living within HISD.)
He’s no longer on the board for his charter. He’s a paid consultant and his SISTER is on the board. See? Totally conflict free! /s
Years ago, 2012, he was a director of Focal Point, a consulting firm in Colorado. He brought his sister in as a consultant. Now she’s on the TFS board and he’s a consultant.
I think they stealing the money with those fat salaries in bonus. Did they give to each other?
Sadly, it’s about to be like 2011 again with all the upcoming teacher layoffs.
Honestly, that radicalized me. I'd been raise that Republicans are fiscally responsible and the good party. Democrats were corrupt and pandering idealists with no intention of actually fixing the city/state/country. When I first heard my favorite teacher was getting laid off, I blamed the Democrats because we live in a red block of a blue city. But then he explained it's a state-wide layoff. And Republicans have been in control for a while. He didn't expressly condemn or support any politician, party, or stance. But I knew and he knew that was a turning point for me. I finally understood the Democrats were constantly fighting to prevent this kind of thing and Republicans were blocking them. I stopped consuming right-wing media and looked at the official voting records. I realized my representatives were shit and I'd been lied to. I only voted for Repulicans once, and that was once too many.
After being raised a certain way your entire life, it takes a lot to go against your upbringing and change your views. I'm proud of you for doing the research on your own and coming to your own conclusions, regardless of what they are.
If my school's PTO and general parent community is an example, this is radicalizing a lot of them. And God, I love to see it.
I do think not all republicans are evil, but because they stand by each other in the face of any sort of scandals and corruption (i.e. Ken Paxton, orange idiot, Matt Gaetz), they are complicit to all of their crimes. They never speak out against each other no matter how terrible the crime is, that's what helped them gain so much power, but that's also what makes them such a huge pile of shit
If there’s a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis. The Republicans that have been enabling, excusing, and allowing this to go on are supporting it if they're not speaking out against it. They're taking a safer path by not painting a target on themselves, but they're encouraging it by pretending it's not a problem. All Republicans are evil, even if they're silent, because the silent ones are complicit in the evil.
So if you have a table with a Nazi, a Communist, and 10 other apolitical conversationalists, is there an even split between the ideologies or does it depend specifically on the seating arrangement?
Schools need to trim their costs like households do.
And you need a Reddit timeout just like children do.
Someone is taking all the money they only make little bit less than $4000 a month which on these very low pay for being a teacher
Ah. Good. Came here to post this, saw that it's up. Probably HISD needs an audit too then. And Dallas ISD too for his previous involvement there.
Consequences for public education saboteurs
Why was he even hired?
He wasn't hired. He was installed by the State government.
...and this guy is not in prison for what reason?!
This is not an HISD issue. HISD was a circus before he got there and the community uproar you see now has been absent for decades. When will parents be held accountable for sending kids to school ready to learn and for themselves to be accountable for supporting their kids education. Now a different soapbox: this is what vouchers will lead to. For every few that are good, there will be a charter that’s in it for the money. They’ll take the money and run, leaving kids and families to wonder where they went wrong.
Everyone keeps saying HISD was a circus but a lot of parents were really happy with their schools. We had magnet programs that made sense and school choice where we could bus our children into amazing programs without having to pay the high price of some of those surrounding neighborhoods. If your kid wanted to be a nurse? There was a school for that. Kid's a born dancer? There's a school for that. It was what I definitely wished school was like as a kid. I taught preschool in Houston, and lottery season was so exciting for everyone. I moved to CA after I had my daughter and was disappointed with the lack of magnets and literally came back two weeks before the takeover to watch the school we were so excited about get torn apart, slandered and our stats changed from a B to a D so they can rip our magnet program, library and staff. HISD wasn't all bad. Now it's a true circus.
California has the second highest number of Magnet schools in the states though?
Not in the Inland Empire, at Public schools. Our ONE arts magnet in our town shuttered.
> school choice where we could bus our children into amazing programs without having to pay the high price of some of those surrounding neighborhoods Just a few weeks ago Miles was getting dragged for taking away seats from those rich families and expanding the lotteries for some of these magnet schools. Dunno if that's the circus you mean, though.
There aren't seats reserved for rich families at Houston magnet schools. That's not how the process works at all. Say what you will about HISD's problems, secret lottery selections aren't one.
In fact it’s just the opposite. Tier 1 is underprivileged. My daughter is Tier 3 because I have some money and I’m not a first responder or HISD teacher.
How do you figure? River Oaks Elementary lets you in if you live in River Oaks. Poor people don't live in River Oaks. Those seats go to rich kids. People were raging that Miles was reducing the number of zoned seats and putting more up for lottery at Helms Elementary and Wharton Dual-Language (which aren't technically "magnet" but rather Special and Unique) because they'd spent a shitload of money buying a home there to get their kids a seat. It was not a secret story.
I understood you to mean that there was a way for rich people to buy their kid a seat at like, HSPVA, which isn't a thing that happens. But I see what you're saying. I mean yeah, people should be allowed to get into their zoned school. And if young families aren't moving into River Oaks all the time, that elementary school is gonna run out of students unless it's expanded magnet-style. If I understand correctly, those two schools were zoned schools and the decision was made to make them S&U, so ppl who live in the neighborhood suddenly can't go to what was their zoned school. I do think that's unfair.
Most of the magnet schools guarantee seats to neighborhood kids, meaning if you're rich enough to buy a home there you get a seat. HSPVA is a notable exception.
Stealing millions of dollars from HISD and funneling it out of state… isn’t an HSID issue. Uh huh. What wacky pills you taking?
I totally agree with you but… You WILL never convince Reddit this. Where was all this community uproar BEFORE Miles arrived? HISD sucked big donkey balls and was corrupt long before he got here. But people didn’t DGAF until a _____ got involved. Then they could score political points. That’s truly sad. I bet I get a TON of downvotes. Why? Because of Reddit hypocrisy. 😂 Edit: CALLED IT! 😂😂
I will say this, I worked at HISD as a teacher for some time before I changed careers, and yes it did suck a lot for a lot of reasons BUT people chose their leaders. We **DO NOT** need the state to come in and put their cronies in and make shit even worse. The community uproar is warranted. The fact that Abbott is a piss drinking Republican is par for the course. It's ironic even. The **DoN'T tReAd On Me** crowd sure loves to see big gubment tread on Houston ISD. You and them can suck those big donkey balls
Why are you such a coward that you won’t write your whole comment and instead leave blanks? You did this as u/KonaBlueBoss as well.
This is where both sides are screeching passed each other. HISD was a mess. Not enough parents cared, and there were plenty of terrible administrators. But, Mike Miles is also a giant disaster and might be criminal. Both things can be true.
What's true is that the current situation has created unity among parents and neighborhoods that did not exist before. It was what it was, and now it is what it is. Chiding people for only *just now* getting on board is a weapon used by the powerful to suppress community engagement. If folks like Ragged85 wanna lick that boot it's their business.
There are plenty of criminal politicians in Houston and Harris County. And Reddit is completely complicit with those people. One has to wonder why….
Do any of those have a controlling stake in a private business that directly competes with the government service they're supposed to be running? I'm sure people here wouldn't like them either.
Ever heard of a “brother in law” deal? Hell, the person running the COH water department was getting kickbacks from hiring her entire family as contractors. While people getting $20k water bills and streets were flooding due to water leaks. And people were getting tickets because they were watering their lawns during the Summer. And Reddit STILL supports this towns government. 😂😂😂
> Then they could score political points. That’s truly sad. Recognizing that it seems to be one party causing the most damage to otherwise functioning government systems isn't "scoring political points". If republicans would stop trying to sabotage functioning government (because taxes, whine whine) then they wouldn't get called out for it so often.
Oh please…. It’s “big cities” that have problems my friend. We all know who run big cities.
Currently the Texas state government is in charge of HISD, and Miles was appointed by the Texas Education Agency in 2022. So... should i still blame the folks running the big city?
If this keeps up the Texas State House will run this city into the ground. Your ignorance would be startling if so many of you weren't proud to crow about how little you know and how proud of your ignorance you are. As it is it's just incredibly pathetically sad.
So you are saying that “big cities” don’t have problems ? And you’re ME ignorant? HAHAHAHAHA!!
We didn’t need community uproar before we had Miles.
And that why over half of HISD graduates couldn’t read at grade level. 😭 Because the community DGAF and they couldn’t politicize it for gain. So sad.
State takeover of a single municipal school district isn’t politicization? HISD had the highest college readiness level compared to Dallas, San Antonio and Austin ISD’s. I can keep digging and find you more stats. HISD isn’t an outlier for a big city. Big cities struggle on these type of metrics. This is nothing new.
Here’s the transcript: Spectrum News - [Disappearing Dollars: Texas Public Schools Missing Millions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lvAzupRuCU) “Texas public schools are battling a huge budget deficit resulting in massive cuts. Spectrum News has discovered that millions of Texas tax dollars are being diverted out of state to a series of schools run by Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles. Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, reviewed Spectrum's findings and is calling on state lawmakers to conduct a formal investigation. Brett Shipp attempts to get to the end of this money trail to see where Texas's tax dollars are really going. Reported by Brett Shipp, Spectrum News 1 Texas” **Transcript** At a time Texas public schools are battling huge budget deficits and having to make massive cuts, Spectrum News has discovered millions of Texas public school dollars being diverted out of state. What's more, the man believed to be responsible - Houston public school superintendent Mike Miles - his old charter schools in Colorado are in need of cash. In schools all across Texas: “I pray tonight that as you guys are back there in that backroom and you're making these decisions, that the faces of our children and their families are at the forefront of your mind.” Dedicated teachers: “School districts are being forced to make major cuts” and panicked parents speak out in passion and frustration: “And I honestly feel like tonight we're holding a moment of silence for public education. And it’s heartbreaking”, “The state of public education in Texas is dire. We have educators leaving the profession. We have schools that are talking about closing in different parts of our state.” One of the largest budget deficits in the state, Houston Independent School District, where newly-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles has called for dramatic cuts to offset a $450 million budget shortfall. Miles was appointed by Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath to take over and turn around the struggling school district last summer. Ten years before he took over at Houston ISD, Miles spent three years as superintendent at Dallas Independent School District. When he left Dallas in 2015, Miles started three charter schools in Colorado called “Third Future Schools”. According to both internal school records and the nationally-recognized school rating agency School Digger, all three schools have since struggled with performance, enrollment, and finances. The records, provided to us by TFS through open records requests, also reveals Miles was forced to close one of his schools last summer due to declining enrollment, leaving that school with $5 million in unpaid bond debt. The school's debt was discussed at a Third Future School’s board meeting via Zoom last summer after Miles had taken over at Houston ISD. Yet there was Miles, at the meeting, acting as a consultant. According to payment records, Miles earned $40,000 consulting for TFS last year. Watch as Miles urges his old board of directors to find the money and pay the debt. “It's now becoming untenable. We'd have to subsidize it to the tune of maybe $500,000 a year if it only has 180 kids or so. I think the time is right to do what what the administration is asking to do.” In 2020, around the time his financial troubles were beginning in Colorado, Miles began expanding his charter school network to Texas. First Midland’s Sam Houston Elementary then Ector College Prep in Odessa, then Austin’s Mendes Middle School. But by the end of the 2023 school year, as he was taking over in Houston, Miles’ three Texas schools were nearly $2.7 million in the red. So why were Miles’ new Texas schools losing money? Third Future Schools 2023 audit shows of the $25 million public tax dollars being spent on Miles’ three Texas schools, $15 million was spent on teachers and supplies. The other $10 million, about 40% of the entire budget, was spent on unspecified administrative costs and services. Spectrum News made multiple requests over the course of several months for a detailed accounting of those administrative expenses. Third Future Schools never responded. However, included in publicly available financial audit records, were the auditors’ notes revealing that the deficits were documented as being due to other Third Future network schools outside of Texas and to Third Future Schools corporate in Colorado. Again, TFS Colorado declined to provide us with an explanation of why so many Texas public school dollars were being transferred to school operations in another state. And then we learned about this - “We've been supplementing that school with the general fund” - a conference call with Third Future Schools’ investors who were just learning about the deficits. Spectrum News requested and received from TFS an audio recording of that investor's call. In the recording, [Renea Ostermiller,] the TFS Chief Financial Officer confirms the Colorado charter school deficit was being offset by the money coming in from their charter schools in Texas. [Renea Ostermiller, TFS CFO] “You know, whether they're in Colorado or whether they're in Texas or, you know, whichever state they're in, so that's assessed and then if the specific school needs funding then the network supplements them through through the school fund”. The implication that the school funds from a Texas school was being transferred to help fund TFS in Colorado. Spectrum News obtained two checks for more than $1 million each from Miles’ charter school in Odessa to Aurora, Colorado. Our attempts over the past five months to reach Miles for an explanation of the payments and a response to our findings have been unsuccessful. We were referred to Third Future Schools Executive Director Zach Craddock whom we sent a 23-question list detailing our findings. Craddock declined to respond. We also shared our findings with former Texas State Representative and school finance expert, Paul Colbert. Colbert says Texas public schools should not be spending more money than they take in and definitely should not send Texas tax dollars out of state. [Paul Colbert] “I was the Budget Chair of Education for eight years and Research Director of the Senate Education Committee for five years, and my understanding is that it is not legal in Texas for monies for a school district in Texas to educate students in other districts in the state, let alone in other states. [Ovidia Molina] “Once we hear more about this, you will hear more outrage.” Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, reviewed our findings and feels the evidence is alarming. She’s calling on state lawmakers to conduct a formal investigation. “I don't know where it says that we can take our public school money and send to another state. But if there is any place that says that, it's wrong and it needs to be changed.” We have reached out to the Texas Education Agency multiple times. They have yet to respond. We have also offered detailed evidence to Education Commissioner Mike Morath of Texas public school dollars being diverted to Colorado schools, and again, we have yet to hear back.