Texas MPs and a advocate group representing Charter schools strictly criticized a small charter school network, which has paid up to $ 870,000 annually to its superintendent, one of the country’s highest paid public school leaders.
Propublica and Texas Tribune had published a story about Valere Public Schools last week, stating that the district only reported to pay its superintendent, Salvador Cavazos, which is less than $ 300,000 per year. In fact, the bonus and one -time payment made almost three times its income to run a district, with less than 1,000 students in three premises.
The MPs brought the story on 6 March during an important Texas House of Representative Committee, which discussed how much funding the state should provide to traditional public and charter schools in the coming years. The legislators repeatedly pressed Bryas Adams about the compensation of the Government Affairs Vice President for the Texas Public Charter School Association, and asked why the charter schools need additional state funding if they use it for high administrator salary.
“You have received a report in the Texas Tribune today, which is about $ 800,000 per year,” said John Bryant, a democrat, a Democrat from Dallas. “None of our superintendents at the public level, who have 100,000, 150,000 children, make nothing close to it.”
State rape. Terry Leo Wilson, a Republican outside Houston, who previously served in the Texas State Board of Education, called Kavazos’ bonus “ridiculous, unheard, derogatory”.
In response, Adams said that his organization is also against the superintendent’s high compensation. He handed over copies of a letter, the Charter Association sent three members of the Valere Public School Board, stating that they should pay less to Kavazos. The association stated that it rarely questions the district’s functions, but the additional $ 500,000 to $ 600,000 is described. The board awarded Cavazos on top of its annual salary as “completely alignment” with the market. The letter urged the school board to tie Cavazos’s bonus into a specific matrix.
The board members of the association wrote in a letter of 22 January, “This behavior will put a shadow on the public charter school system in Texas and can be harmful to the ability to advocate for its members of TPCSA and those students.”
The association sent a letter to Valere after knowing about the findings of the news room but before the article was published. Propublica and Tribune also shared that two other charter schools pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to their superintendent at the top of their Aadhaar pay. The association did not answer questions about whether it has reached those schools as well.
Credit:
Propublica and Texas obtained and cropped by tribune
Cavazos’ compensation is strong public rebuke as leaders of traditional public and charter schools are advocating MLAs for more money after years without increasing their base funding. The push has intensified the ongoing efforts of MPs to implement this legislative session like a voucher, which will allow parents to use the taxpayer dollar to send their children to private schools. Legislative budget experts found that by doing so, money could be removed from public schools. Texas village. Greg Abbott has made the voucher program the champion.
Since charter schools are considered public, not private, MPs questioned whether taxpayers could believe that additional expenses on public education will go to the needs of students rather than pockets of administrators like Cavazos.
Board members of Valere Public Schools did not give any direct response to the MLAs’ concerns about the payment of Cavazos in the email of questions from news organizations this week. He also wrote that he did not respond to the letter of the Charter Association and said that the association has “no regulator or other rights on Valere.”
Kavazos has rejected several interview requests. The board members have defended their compensation, stating that he is also the CEO of the Charter Network and his contribution justifies his salary. Members also stated that a “important” part of Cavazos’ compensation comes from private donations, but they would not provide evidence to support their claims.
Dallas representative Bryant told the news room in an interview that the works of Valere Public Schools show why the state needs strong inspection of its charter schools.
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He said that MLAs should tighten the current reporting requirements of the Texas Education Agency. The agency posts all the superintendents compensation and benefits to the districts on its website or in an annual report. The districts should directly send the state about the annual salary of the Superintendent and any supplementary payment for additional duties, but the state education agency did not clarify that it included bonuses. It told the news rooms that it does not investigate whether the districts follow the first requirement until the possible violations go green.
Bryant said, “We need to put it in the law that they have to report it and have a fine to fail to do so.” “Otherwise, it will be unclear.”
The Texas Education Agency did not respond to the news room questions sent after legislative hearing about the current inspection of the state of charter schools and superintendents compensation. Nor did Texas House speaker Dustin Baroz or Lt Gove Dan Patrick, who set legislative priorities for state MPs.
Abbott’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris, scolding the districts of the school, sent a written statement to the news organizations that “spend the funding of the state on administrative blots instead of teachers, which they work and they serve the students.” Mahaleris wrote that Abbott will work with MPs to ensure that “students and teachers, systems and overpaid administrators,”, wrote to public dollars. He did not mention specific bills or solutions.
MPs have presented at least five bills during this legislative session that will ban the salary of the superintendents, but most of the cavezos compensation would not have applied to the vast majority of compensation as the proposals do not limit the bonus.
A Republican, a Republican, representing the counties between Austin and San Antonio, filed a resolution, which would ban the payment of superintendents for more than double the highest -grossing teacher in the school district. The current proposal of Isaac is not responsible for the bonus of the superintendents. After knowing about how to pay the Cavazos heavy payment at the top of his base salary of the Valere School Board, he said that he was “absolutely” to modify his bill to include the bonus.
Isaac said in an interview, “I have no justification for this.” “I would like to see such superintendents who forward their role with a dedication to the success of the student, not the means to secure these excessive salary.”
Despite the displeasure of MPs and experts inside and outside the Charter School sector, the Valere Board is still standing behind its decisions. When asked by the news room, whether it has any current plan to change the salary that Cavazos receives at the top of its Aadhaar salary, the board sent a response:
“No.”
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