Accountability matters when it comes to the Texas public education system, whether it's teachers, administrators, board members or superintendents.

It is especially true for the Texas Education Agency, which has oversight for the state's entire public education system. More specifically, the buck stops with TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, and we're calling on him to provide a full accounting of changes the agency has made in the wake of an audit that found errors with its contract-awarding process.

Morath promised changes to the process last November and reiterated those changes last week. However, he hasn't been forthcoming about what they entail.

The audit revealed that the TEA failed to catch a conflict of interest in its award of a $4.4 million no-bid contract to SPEDx. The Georgia-based company was to collect data about Texas special education students and analyze how schools serve them. The contract was ultimately terminated, resulting in increased distrust among parents, advocacy groups and the state — especially in light of a federal investigation that found Texas broke special education laws, denying services to disabled students.

The most vulnerable students within our public education system deserve better.

The audit also found errors that led to the award of a $2.9 million contract to Tembo, a business management firm that advanced to the final round for evaluation despite ranking lower than another vendor. The report said multiple people involved in the process provided conflicting information about who made the final decision to award the contract to Tembo.

No system is perfect, but Morath needs to let the sun shine in on the details as part of a process to rebuild public trust. With millions of dollars at stake, taxpayers have a right to know what happened, why and what was done about it. And we all have a right to know if the system is working as designed — for the benefit of students.

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