FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Aug. 18, 2025
Contact: Nicole Hill, press@texasaft.org
Records show Texas private schools have made nepotism hires, awarded millions in contracts to board members’ private businesses, and offered personal loans to school leaders
AUSTIN, Texas — Last week, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica’s joint investigative unit released a new report highlighting instances where private schools – which will soon accept taxpayer dollars under the state’s billion-dollar voucher program – likely violated state nepotism and conflict of interest laws that apply to public schools. While private schools are currently and will remain exempt from those ethics laws, this report begs the question: Should Texas taxpayer dollars be sent to private schools that refuse to be held to the same basic ethical standards as our public schools? Texas educators don’t think so.
Highlights
- “For about eight years, a Houston private school has followed a unique pattern when appointing members to its governing board: It has selected only married couples. Over 200 miles away, two private schools in Dallas have awarded more than $7 million in combined contracts to their board members.”
- “If held to the same standards, 27 private schools identified by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune through tax filings likely would have violated state law.”
- “Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep, a Catholic high school serving primarily low-income students of color, awarded more than $5 million to a construction firm owned by one of its board members for “interior finish” work between 2017 and 2021, tax filings show.”
- “The following year, [the Greenhill School in the Dallas area] provided a personal loan of nearly $100,000 to its current head of school, Lee Hark, for a down payment on a home. The school did not disclose the terms of the agreement in its tax filings, including whether it charged interest or what would happen should Hark default.”
- “State funds flowing to public and charter schools are monitored by the Texas Education Agency, which requires annual independent audits and assigns ratings that gauge each school’s fiscal health. Districts that repeatedly underperform risk sanctions, including forced closure. The state, however, will not directly regulate private schools under the new voucher program, which will begin next year.”
Read the full story:
Texas Tribune/ProPublica: Some Texas private schools hire relatives and enrich insiders. Soon they can do it with taxpayer money.
[Lexi Churchill, The Texas Tribune/ProPublica, 8/13/2025]
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The Texas American Federation of Teachers represents 66,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, support personnel, and higher-education employees across the state. Texas AFT is affiliated with the 1.8 million-member American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO.