Two state-appointed conservators will be overseeing a national charter school operator with a strong presence in North Texas.
Individuals Dedicated to Excellence and Achievement (IDEA) Public Schools reached a settlement agreement with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in which Christopher Ruszkowski and Dr. David Lee will help improve the operator’s “financial systems and controls.”
IDEA Public Schools must pay each conservator $125 an hour plus travel expenses during this time.
As a Monday news release from TEA explained, IDEA’s governing board has been under investigation since 2021 for “numerous allegations … of financial and operational impropriety,” reported The Texan. That same year, an internal investigation into IDEA’s CEO and COO allegedly found considerable evidence that financial resources had been misused for personal gains.
Reacting to the conservatorship, IDEA stated that it “invited the additional oversight by the TEA” after seeing inconsistencies in its audits and “has since installed new board members and executive leadership,” according to KRGV. It also announced having made an arrangement to return a $28.7 million grant to the U.S. Department of Education via monthly installments through December 2026.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, IDEA plans to open a $23 million new location in Fort Worth this April. It already has four locations in the city, which it has opened over the past five years. It teaches approximately 4,000 students, with its larger national network boasting a 100% college acceptance rate.
Two of the largest school districts in the DFW metroplex — Fort Worth and Dallas Independent School Districts — have seen poor student achievement outcomes over the past few years. These weak academic performances have contributed to significant shrinkages of both districts’ student bodies, with parents opting for education alternatives, such as charters like IDEA Public Schools.
During the 2021-2022 school year, Fort Worth ISD saw just 32% of its students score at grade level on the STAAR exam, and its on-time graduation rate was 85.7%, according to the latest TEA accountability report.
Meanwhile, only 41% of students scored at grade level on the STAAR exam that same year at Dallas ISD, while almost 20% of the district’s graduating Class of 2022 did not obtain a diploma within four years. The district has also faced allegations of grade manipulation, mismanagement, and corruption.
Houston ISD — the largest public school system in the state — made headlines last year after TEA took it over because one of its campuses chronically underperformed academically, as covered in The Dallas Express. Former Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles was named by TEA Commissioner Mike Morath as the district’s new superintendent in the hope that he would turn things around, yet his track record has been questioned, as covered in The Dallas Express.