Over 200 miles away, two private schools in Dallas have awarded more than $7 million in combined contracts to their board members.
And at least seven private schools across Texas have issued personal loans, often reaching $100,000 or more, to their school leaders under terms that are often hidden from public view.
Such practices would typically violate laws governing public and charter schools. But private schools operate largely outside those rules because they haven’t historically received direct taxpayer dollars. Now, as the state moves to spend at least $1 billion over the next two years on private education, lawmakers have imposed almost none of the accountability measures required of the public school system.
Ohhh, yeah.
I went to one of these private schools. Last I heard, the headmaster had formed a sort of “boys club” with rich jock dads to emphasize the sports program, at the expense of teachers in particular. Ugh, don’t even get me started on the curriculum and “diversity” initiatives. Or drama that would put “rich person reality TV” to shame.
Greenhill School
Oh man, Greenhill. These guys were snooty and infamous even to us, and it sure felt that way in sports leagues.
Anyway, giving state funds to these schools is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. They are the absolute last establishments in Texas that need it, with the sole exception of specialized disability schools. That sounds like an okay idea, I suppose…
emphasize the sports program, at the expense of teachers in particular
This is hardly unique to private school, especially in Texas. The Texas contracting industry is absolutely bloated with graft. We build $60M stadiums that are falling apart in a matter of years. We have schools that have relied on rented temporary units for decades at a time. There’s science classrooms with industrial equipment installed that nobody has the training or license to use, so it just sits empty while kids are told there’s no money in the budget for second year physics or chemistry instruction.
Student athletes routinely suffer heatstroke. Coaches teach classes for which they have no training or experience. Then every couple of years, you get to hear about a scandal from a hotshot school star assaulting a younger student or a teacher grooming a student for sex or a principle embezzling funds from the bloated athletics budget. And this is just normal school stuff.
Privatization adds another layer of obscurity. Corruption can persist longer without being exposed. Parents have fewer rights. Teachers have less economic bargaining power, but more opportunities for abuse. The collection of people with the opportunity to embezzle is more tightly controlled and the abusers have more opportunity for retaliation.
But this has been systemic in a state that ultimately hates children.
They do this in public schools as well. Coaches wives hired as teachers and vice versa. Superintendents raking in the cash in small towns.
So? Private shouldn’t have any of their fingers in the public funds pie.
