Mike Miles Is in Hot Water Again — 40% of Budget Going to Third Future Schools
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses the latest controversy surrounding Houston ISD's Mike Miles and the budget allocation to Third Future Schools charters.
Key Takeaways
- Budget concerns are serious - 40% of the budget for three charter schools raises questions about resource allocation
- Accountability matters in reform - Ambitious reforms require transparent budgeting and measurable outcomes
- The pattern continues - This is the latest in a series of controversies under Miles' leadership of HISD
Transcript
All right, let's talk about the latest Mike Miles news.
You may have seen that Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles, who formerly ran the Third Future Charter Network, which is mostly in Colorado but a little bit in Texas, is in hot water this week and he has defended himself against accusations that he's diverting taxpayer dollars intended for Texas students to his charter organization in Colorado.
And he's currently a consultant.
I don't think he's an employee there anymore, but he did start the network.
That was what he did prior to HISD.
And the controversy is that these schools in Texas that are receiving about $25 million to educate students in three charter schools in Texas, that money, of that money, $15 million is being spent on teacher salaries in Texas and other staff expenses.
But $10 million is being sent to Colorado to the charter management organization, Third Future Schools.
as administrative overhead.
And the thing that makes this suspicious is not the fact that that is occurring, but the amount and the fact that the charter schools in Colorado are insolvent.
They're losing tons of money.
They're under enrolled.
They don't have enough money to cover their expenses.
And Mike Miles has defended himself saying, well, this is a perfectly legitimate thing to do.
It's completely legal.
Everybody knew this was happening.
It's totally above board.
And he's right about the process, the process of paying money to an out-of-state charter management organization for administrative overhead, stuff like payroll, and HR and executive leadership and things like that, that's legitimate.
That is completely legal.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
What's wrong with that is the amount.
40% of the budget of these three schools in Texas is being sent to Colorado, and it's effectively subsidizing these under-enrolled schools that are losing money in Colorado.
So Texas parents are mad about that.
Texas taxpayers are mad about that.
And I think they have the right to be, but let me know what you think about this.
I don't know if there's any hard and fast rule for how much to spend on administrative overhead, but 40% seems way off to me.
If you were spending $15 million on staff salaries at the school and $10 million going somewhere else for administrative overhead, that seems wildly out of whack to me.
So let me know what you think about this.
Like, I'm not sure what can be done if this is not illegal, but it definitely does raise the question of like, should third future schools be operating these charter schools in Texas if they're going to end up sending 40% of their budget to Colorado for vague administrative expenses?
Let me know what you think.