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Many Houston-area charter schools are violating state transparency laws designed to make school governance and financial decisions open to the public, a pattern that has drawn minimal scrutiny from state officials. 

Nearly 85 percent of the 39 charter school networks based in Harris County did not have all their up-to-date transparency records posted online as required by state law, the Houston Landing found this month after reviewing their sites. The missing records include board meeting notices, agendas and minutes, which would allow the public to monitor the board’s governance, as well as annual budgets and year-end financial reports. 

In recent years, the types of records missing from many school sites have helped expose questionable financial deals and lax oversight of charter schools, prompting calls for state lawmakers to increase oversight. 

Most notably, Texas Education Agency officials appointed a conservator to oversee the state’s largest charter school chain, IDEA Public Schools, after a state investigation into multiple allegations of financial mismanagement. One of the most controversial decisions by IDEA leaders — spending $15 million to lease a private jet — received extensive media coverage after a teachers union spotted the plans in board meeting records.

Charter schools receive nearly all of their funding from Texas taxpayers, but they are privately operated by nonprofit governing boards. Voters in Texas elect the board members of their local independent school districts, which the vast majority of the state’s school-aged children attend.

Almost all the schools violating the law are relatively small operators, while almost all the region’s biggest charter organizations — including KIPP Texas, IDEA and YES Prep — were in compliance. One charter operator, Houston Classical Charter School, updated its website following an inquiry from the Landing for this article. Ten other charter organizations did not respond to requests for comment.

Texas Public Charter School Association spokesperson Brian Whitley said the organization expects all charter schools to follow both the spirit and the letter of the state’s transparency requirements. 

“Public schools in Texas have to comply with hundreds of rules and regulations. Sometimes that’s hard for small districts — ISD and charter alike,” Whitley said. “We’ll continue to work with educators, lawmakers, and the Texas Education Agency to support compliance with important measures that provide transparency and accountability to taxpayers.”

The missing information also raises questions about the TEA’s enforcement of transparency requirements, some of which are enforced more proactively than others. State officials said they do not preemptively check whether charter school operators are following Open Meetings Act rules. Instead, they rely on tips from the public about violations. 

“If TEA received a tip or information indicating non-compliance, the agency would provide the necessary technical assistance to ensure compliance,” said TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky.

The TEA has a process to ensure charters follow other aspects of transparency laws. Charter leaders must submit links to financial records, superintendent salary information, and the names of board members directly to the TEA each year. However, the Landing found many schools were not up-to-date with this information. 

Whitley said the state can sanction or even close public charter schools for violations of these laws, which the TEA handles on a “case-by-case” basis. 

Over the years, several small Houston charter operators have been exposed for dubious financial decisions, intensifying public mistrust. 

In 2018, the founders of Varnett Public Schools were sentenced to a combined 13 years in prison after embezzling $2.6 million from the organization and pocketing money they nickel-and-dimed from mostly low-income families in the roughly 1,000-student district. 

In an email to the Landing, Varnett HR Director Angeles Reyes said the school’s website was updated to include missing information.

And a 2017 Houston Chronicle investigation uncovered murky financial decisions and governance involving the leaders of Accelerated Intermediate Academy, a charter school enrolling about 200 to 300 students each year. 

At the time, the governing board was paying the small school’s superintendent, Kevin Hicks, about $250,000 annually, an amount that mirrored the salaries of local superintendents leading districts with tens of thousands of students. Accelerated Intermediate also owned a luxury condo appraised at $450,000, which its leaders said they used for storage space. When questioned about the decisions by the Chronicle, one of the school’s three board members said he didn’t know enough to comment about Hicks’ salary and didn’t know that the charter owned the condo. 

Today, Accelerated Intermediate does not post meeting agendas or minutes on the network’s website. School leaders did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

Hicks’ annual salary now totals about $282,000, according to state records, and Accelerated Intermediate still owns the condo. TEA officials investigated the condo ownership following the Chronicle’s investigation, ultimately concluding the charter violated no state laws or regulations.

The Landing’s review found six of 40 charter operators in Harris County had all required information posted and up to date. In many cases, required information on school’s websites was not entirely missing, but it was out of date. 

Texas AFT Director of Governmental Relations Patty Quinzi helped expose IDEA Public School’s questionable spending by sifting through board meeting minutes. To her, the trend of not posting board governance documents spells trouble.

 “They want all the benefits of being a public school, they want all the money, without the accountability or transparency the taxpayers and parents deserve,” said Quinzi. “At any other public school, the school board is like the community hub. … People know what’s going on, people show up, for better or for worse.”

Still, at a time when charter schools are highly scrutinized, many in Harris County are managing to avoid posting crucial public information that helps families engage with and monitor their school’s governance. 

In an email to the Landing, Houston Classical Charter School Compliance Officer Lyn Koueth said the school has recently undergone a TEA audit, which focused on its website. However, the site lacked several key pieces of up-to-date information, including financial documents and public information request information.

The website was updated to include some of this missing information following the Landing’s inquiry. Koueth said the website had already been updated, but an IT employee forgot to click “publish” rather than “just saving” the page when they last revamped the site. Still, no accessible board meeting minutes have been posted on the site since September 2022, leaving over a year gap in governance information.

David DeMatthews, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, said it’s harder for families to attend school governance meetings and for the public to monitor decision-making when charter schools don’t regularly post materials that pull back the curtain on governance. The issue signals insufficient enforcement and oversight, he said.

“They’re not even taking steps to ensure that the public can review meeting minutes,” DeMatthews said. “It should cause pause for any Texan, whether these schools are actually public or not.”

DeMatthews said a stronger enforcement process would provide more transparency to taxpayers and the families the schools serve.

“I think charter schools will meet that bar as long as it’s enforced,” DeMatthews said. “It is TEA’s job, and it’s already on the books that it’s their job. … So there’s really no excuse for a lack of transparency.”

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