October 12, 2023

On Tuesday morning, ProPublica and the Texas Tribune published a highly misleading story about public charter school expansions in Texas. The reporters intentionally left out important factual information to further a predetermined narrative.

The article argues that Education Commissioner Mike Morath frequently waives “state rules” so that low-performing public charter schools can open new campuses. This is not accurate.

Existing public charter schools that seek to grow must receive approval from the Texas Education Agency. State law allows the commissioner to set a much higher bar than the Legislature did for which schools qualify to expand, which he has always done.

The law also allows the commissioner to waive those very strict requirements on a case by case basis. These waivers simply mean that a charter school may ask for permission to expand – a waiver doesn’t mean they will get to expand.

Here’s what the article gets wrong about the waivers and what you should know.

- The commissioner has issued 17 waivers over the past 10 years.

- From those 17 waivers, 12 expansion applications were approved and 11 charter school campuses opened.

- There are 921 charter school campuses in Texas, so these 11 schools represent only 1% of charter schools in the state. It’s clear this is not a “regular” occurrence, as the article claims.

- Of the 11 charter school campuses that opened, only three received “unacceptable” ratings in their first two years — while seven of the schools were rated A or B.

- All three of those campuses have improved their performance since.

- TEA’s criteria for public charter school expansion are strict. Hundreds of Texas’s traditional school districts wouldn’t meet them.

- Of all recently expanded charter schools, 97% have received an A, B, or C rating — with 86% earning an A or a B.

- These public charter schools are often among the highest performers in Texas. For example, about 40% of them earned academic distinction in ELA/reading, compared to 25% of all public schools statewide.

Readers deserve fair and factual reporting. Texas public charter schools are free to attend, open to all students, and are putting 400,000 children on the road to success in college, career, and life.