Ruben Cortez, Jr., the State Board of Education member now running for Texas House District 37, penned a letter to Education Commissioner Mike Morath this week questioning a proposal from a migrant-center operator to start a charter school for its facilities.
Sunny Glen, which has run homes for abused and neglected children since 1936 in the lower Rio Grande Valley, recently contracted with the federal government to house up to 500 migrant children separated from parents and detained at a former Walmart in Raymondville. Since that time, the center has amassed 140 “deficiencies” in reports from Texas Health and Human Services, including 30 “high-risk” incidents, some involving physical abuse.
“The troubled history of Sunny Glen’s foster homes is disturbing enough,” Cortez wrote. “But it is beyond outrageous that anyone involved with running a child prison camp would think they are qualified to run a school.”