FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 25, 2021
CONTACT: Rob D’Amico, , rdamico@k5ka.net
Texas AFT President Zeph Capo commented today on the news that IDEA charter schools’ top executives were terminated after allegations of widespread fraud for personal enrichment:
There are already so many ways to legally steal under the current charter system rules that things must be really bad at IDEA to be considered widespread fraud.
I’d say let this be a warning sign, but the warning signs already were glaringly obvious–the school’s flagrant disregard of taxpayer money with exorbitant spending on private jets, luxury sports boxes, and multi-million-dollar ad campaigns for premium TV spots like the Super Bowl.
When you brazenly misuse taxpayer dollars, it’s clear that the corruption runs deeper. And here we see it–IDEA officials engaged in outright and purposeful fraud, pocketing tax dollars for their own enrichment.
The potential for fraud skyrockets for charter schools, because you have little public oversight of the billions in state funds sent to them. It’s time that our Legislature put a stop to promoting charter school chains and paving the way for their rapid expansion. The costs for our public schools and our taxpayers are much too high, particularly when we discover executives in our state’s largest and most sophisticated charter chain padding their pockets with our money.