Houston-ISD board of trustees will be voting on renewing their contract with Teach for America (TFA) next Thursday, Feburary 13, 2020. There are trustees that have received campaign donations from groups that are linked to TFA which will definitely sway their vote in favor of renewing the district’s contract.

Updated on Feb 9 at 5pm/CST to include this bit: Here is the reference policy: https://policyonline.tasb.org/Policy/Download/592?filename=BBFA(LOCAL).pdf

You’re going to hate me for burying the goods, but there is some background you need to be aware of before you decide their campaign donations linked to TFA don’t matter. Last time, Anne Sung abstained her vote because of these conflicts, but Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca did not abstain her vote despite conflicts of interest. There are new trustees and new campaign finance reports with clear conflicts.

Related: How Teach for America Evolved Into an Arm of the Charter School Movement

Unpacking Teach for America & LEE’s Ties to the Waltons

The very first thing I encourage you to do, it to watch this 9-minute bit (15:21–24:50) where I connect the Waltons, Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE), and TFA. In order to understand why TFA is problematic, you need to understand their ties to the Waltons and how it’s directly linked to Leadership for Educational Equity.

A Walton was literally on the board of directors for LEE. Please watch the 9-minute bit (15:21–24:50) where I connect the Waltons, Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE), and TFA.

Judith Cruz, Daniela Hernandez, Patricia K. Allen, and Kathy Blueford-Daniels are the newest trustees.

Recently four seats were up for re-election: District VIII, District III, District IV, and District II.

I already unpacked the campaign finance reports for the other trustees, and you can find that here.

The New Trustees Conflicts of Interest

Cruz received $6,000 from LEE.

Cruz also received a combined of $15,000 from GPS. Yes, I know that you see Doug Foshee is a separate amount, but Doug Foshee is on the board of GPS, but for some reason no one seems to find a board member of a PAC donating thousands problematic. Scroll to the bottom of this linked article to learn about the board members of GPS and their ties to other charters that have received funding from the Waltons.

Hernandez received $7,187.45 from LEE. And received $5,000 from Foshee.

Daniels received $12,000 in an in-kind donation from GPS PAC.

Allen did not have any contributions to note.

For this article specifically, the LEE contributions are the important ones in terms of conflict of interest. Especially since LEE is a spin-off organization of TFA and the TFA contract is what is up for vote this coming week. However, I did include the GPS PAC donations because they are still problematic. Scroll to the bottom of this linked article to learn about the board members of GPS and their ties to other charters that have received funding from the Waltons.

Current Trustees Conflicts of Interest

The Walton family donated a total of $15,000 to Vilaseca. Note in the screenshot below that this is not from the foundation or any of the organizations the Waltons are part of — this is directly from the Waltons.

Vilaseca’s campaign finance report

Vilaseca received $6,000 from LEE.

Sung received $9,500 from LEE.

Per a GPS Action PAC finance report from 2017, the trustees Adams, Deigaard, Vilaseca, and Sung each received $10,000.

If you decided to skip the part of connecting all the orgs:

Watch this 9-minute bit (15:21–24:50) where I connect the Waltons, Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE), and TFA. In order to understand why TFA is problematic, you need to understand their ties to the Waltons and how it’s directly linked to Leadership for Educational Equity.