My Role in Fighting for Financial Reform in DISD

This 1998 D Magazine issue tells in detail the
extreme financial corruption that existed when I
first came to the DISD Board.

One of the things I admit people have forgotten about Dallas ISD was the complete lack of financial accountability as evidence by this D Magazine cover story published in April 1998 which existed when I was first elected to the DISD Board.  A D Magazine editorial also published in the same issue  praised my efforts for calling an independent financial audit of Dallas ISD's finances. 

Neither Republican runoff candidate has ever served on any local school board, much less one from a major metropolitian area as I had.  While the State Board of Education does not deal directly with financial management of individual schools, having experience with handling with all of the administrative challenges and pressures of running schools is important.  Like any elected body, the State Board of Education is influenced by big-money interests especially the textbook companies.

Texas due to both its geographic and population size is by far one of the biggest textbook purchasers in the country.  Virtually all national publishers will tailor their material to Texas curriculum standards.  The people who will determine those standards of course serve on the State Board of Education.  I can't prove for sure of individuals on the State board in the recent past have been pressured from such national interests. Given the wholesale curriculum changes especially in the social studies area (which will be mentioned as a seperate topic in a future blog) that occured two years ago it would not surprise me.  In any case, citizens have a right to know who can take a stand against a group in such a hypothetical situation.

Some years later, the Dallas Observer in a lengthy profile about myself admitted that I was the only trustee to openly oppose then outgoing Dallas ISD Chief Financial Officer Matthew Harden's $600,000 settlement with the school district.   If you read the whole D Magazine article regarding the corrupt DISD administration of the mid and late 1990s I first came into, you'll find this interesting expose from D Magazine making the case that Harden may have used District resources illegally to build his own private home.  It notes my confrontation with Mr. Harden questioning him on this issue at that time.

The Edison Project (An Experience With a Private Firm)

This firm, then a publicly traded company once ran
seven DISD schools during the early 2000s.

Advocates of public school reform have often pointed out that private firms are a solution to improving the quality of public education.  During the early years of my tenure on the Dallas ISD Board, I have had some questionable experiences with a private firm, called then the Edison Project (now Edison Learning) which is based out of New York City.  The idea for the firm to take over several DISD schools came from a superintendent we hired out of California, named Waldemar "Bill" Rojas.

The firm at the time was a publicly traded company that was struggling to make any profit. The stock price of the company was falling, as a result from my understanding.  (It is now a privately held company again under new management.) In any case, some schools under Edison did better than others.  However, we had shall we say questionable results here in Texas.  Here is a newspaper article from the Dallas Observer documenting their own spin of the story on the beginnings of our involvement in Dallas ISD with this company. 

The Observer wrote another profile about Edison's history with another Texas school distict called "No Class."  PBS did a show (here is the companion site) for a PBS about the company nationally in 2003.  The wikipedia entry on the overall history of the company is here. 

Utimately, we voted to discontinue our contract with Edison in 2002 because we didn't feel we were getting our money's worth after allowing the company several years running seven DISD schools. Test scores or other factors such as staff, parent, and student morale didn't illustrate a significant difference in quality with other District schools.  The Dallas Morning News agreed with our assessment.