The IDEA network of charter schools was founded in 2000 by two Teach for America alums, Tom Torkleson and JoAnn Gamma, who subsequently became the network’s co-CEOs. Even though Texas describes IDEA Public Schools a “school district,” IDEA charter schools are privately operated schools, not public schools. And this multi-state charter school network is definitely not managed like a school district. Like many of the giant charter school networks, IDEA has earned the reputation of operating like a business—a pretty unscrupulous business!
Even if your state does not have IDEA charter schools, the story of IDEA is a cautionary tale about charter school management organizations and also about inadequate oversight of the grants made by the federal Charter Schools Program, which has awarded IDEA $300 million since 2010.
Shady Business Practices
Back in 2020, the Houston Chronicle reported that the network’s co-CEO, Tom Torkelson would resign: “Some of Torkelson’s financial and operational moves led to criticism over the past several months. Torkelson’s desire to lease a charter jet as a method of reducing travel hassles between the network’s hubs drew sharp backlash in December 2019. One month later more scrutiny followed the disclosure that IDEA spent about $400,000 annually on luxury boxes and tickets for events at San Antonio’s AT&T Center. IDEA officials said more than 1,000 employees received tickets each season as a reward for performance…. During Torkelson’s tenure, several relatives of IDEA executives and board members also engaged in business dealings with the charter, including a company co-owned by Chief Operating Officer Irma Munoz’s husband that billed more than $600,000 for uniforms, other clothing and gear.” In 2019, Torkelson and his board also purchased a boutique hotel, in which they said they planned to house an environmental school, and the real estate agent, the wife of an IDEA board member, received a real estate transaction fee despite the conflict of interest. After he was pushed out, Torkleson was awarded $900,000 in a separation agreement. His annual salary as co-CEO had been lavish: $554,060.
When Torkleson left, according to a Houston Chronicle report, “IDEA’s board members promised to make several financial and governance reforms.” They launched a forensic review of IDEA’s management, which resulted a year later in the firing of CEO JoAnn Gama and Chief Operating Officer Irma Munoz.
As all this was happening, in April of 2020, U.S. Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) complained about the awarding of a federal Charter Schools Program expansion grant awarded to IDEA schools. The Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss reported: “A U.S. congressman is demanding answers from the U.S. Education Department, alleging department employees complained to his office about political interference in the awarding of a multimillion-dollar federal grant to the controversial IDEA charter school network… Pocan said ‘three whistleblowers’ told his office that professional staff evaluating applications for 2020 grants from the federal Charter Schools Program had rejected IDEA for new funding, deeming the network ‘high risk’ because of how IDEA leaders previously spent federal funds. But according to these whistleblowers, Pocan said, professional staff was overruled by political appointees who ordered the funding be awarded to IDEA.”
Strauss continues, reminding readers about the federal grant IDEA had recently received: “Earlier this month, the Education Department announced it was awarding millions of dollars in new grants to charter schools…. IDEA was the top recipient, receiving $72 million over five years. IDEA had previously received more than $200 million in funding over the past decade through the program.”
What’s Happening with the IDEA Charter School Network in 2024?
The IDEA network of charter schools has continued to grow. Today, according to IDEA’s website, the network includes 143 charter schools. Most are located in Texas, with five schools in Florida, four in Louisiana, and 2 in Cincinnati, Ohio. But as the network grows, controversy about the operation of IDEA charter schools continues today.
K-12 Dive‘s Anna Merod reports that in early March, the Texas Education Agency imposed state oversight by appointing two conservators to monitor and regulate the operation of IDEA charter schools: “(F)ollowing investigations into multiple allegations of ‘financial and operational impropriety’… the Texas Education Agency (TEA) appointed two conservators to oversee and direct the charter system.” TEA Commissioner Mike Morath explained the conservators’ role as “improvement of financial systems and controls” in the IDEA network. The conservators are authorized to help “create a plan to address corrective action concerns” and to order “the board to remove and replace board members if misconduct occurs.”
However, on March 14 the San Antonio Express News‘ Edward McKinley announced the following news: “Just days after putting the state’s largest charter school network under conservatorship for misusing public funds, the Texas Education Agency agreed to let the network, IDEA Public Schools, carry out a major expansion. IDEA is allowed to increase student enrollment from 78,200 to more than 90,000 by the 2025-2026 school year. The 10 new campuses will be mostly in Fort Worth and the Permian Basin with two in Humble, near Houston. The application went in (from IDEA to the Texas Education Agency) on March 6—the day TEA assigned a pair of conservators to oversee IDEA—and was approved on March 8.”
Critics have been quick to question the Texas Education Agency’s move to permit the sudden expansion of a financially troubled enterprise. McKinley quotes Patty Quinzi, the public affairs director of the Texas American Federation of Teachers: “This is an insider deal, behind-the-scenes, shady transaction that had no public input whatsoever.”
Concurrent with imposition of Texas Education Agency conservators over IDEA’s operations has also been a U.S Department of Education crackdown on IDEA’s federal Charter Schools Program grant. McKinley reports: “(T)he U.S. Department of Education recently closed an audit into IDEA that ran from 2016-2021… Since 2010, IDEA has received nearly $300 million in federal Charter School Program grants. IDEA was required to pay back nearly $29 million received from federal grants.
K-12 Dive‘s Merod explains further: “The (IDEA ) charter district said in a statement that it will return $28.7 million in federal grant funds to the U.S. Department of Education under the (new) settlement, via payments made through December 2026… IDEA… also touted a range of leadership, staffing and policy changes.”
The slipshod and shady practices that have been permitted to go on for nearly 25 years at IDEA charter schools would immediately be prohibited in any public school district in the United States. In our system of public schools, the state constitutions; federal, state, and local laws; and democratically elected local boards of education operating with public transparent rules and regulations protect the stewardship of our tax dollars. The contrast is astounding. Scrutiny of the federal Charter Schools Program must be increased. In Texas we’ll all have to watch to see if the Texas Education Agency and its conservators will prevent future abuses by IDEA charter schools.
janresseger 