Charter network leader apologizes for ‘really dumb and unhelpful’ financial decisions
Tom Torkelson, chief executive of IDEA Public Schools, issued a letter (see in full below) to the IDEA community saying he has sometimes “pushed us to a place that’s hard to defend” in his effort to be “entrepreneurial and different from traditional education systems.”
“I’m sorry I put IDEA and our friends in that position,” he said.
Charter schools are publicly funded but privately operated. Supporters say they offer valuable alternatives to families that do not like their neighborhood schools. Critics say they drain resources from traditional public school districts that educate the vast majority of students and that they are part of a movement to privatize public education.
IDEA was started in Texas by two alumni from Teach for America and has nearly 100 campuses in that state and Louisiana serving nearly 53,000 students. According to its audit for 2018 and 2019, IDEA has more than $1.13 billion in assets. It has received more than $200 million from the federal Charter Schools Program over the past decade and has plans to expand rapidly in the next few years.
The chain markets itself as having a 100 percent college acceptance rate. It doesn’t mention that acceptance to a four-year college is a requirement for graduation, which would presumably be a disincentive to enroll for students who do not want to attend college.
Torkelson recently backed off a plan to lease a private jet for $2 million a year — for six years — after the Houston Chronicle and a state teachers union raised questions about it. Torkelson had said the lease would allow IDEA executives to fly to states where the network is expanding.
“You may have seen news stories about IDEA leasing an airplane,” he said in his letter. “That was my idea. I was trying to solve a problem that no other school district in the country has: how to be present in schools that are thousands of miles away from each other and growing fast. While convenient and efficient, it was a foolish solution, because it didn’t square with the life and needs at the very schools I was traveling to.”
IDEA will also end an agreement it has had with Spurs Sports & Entertainment for tickets and a luxury box at a cost of about $400,000 a year, paid for with private funds, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Two months before the Chronicle CONTINUE READING: Charter network leader apologizes for ‘really dumb and unhelpful’ financial decisions - The Washington Post