Audit: Texas Education Agency bureaucracy expands under Abbott

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(The Center Square) – The Texas Education Agency expanded its bureaucracy and managers wages increased by 64% under Gov. Greg Abbott and his appointed TEA commissioner, Mike Morath, according to a new state audit report. 

According to a year-long audit conducted by the Texas State Auditor’s Office, TEA management staff wages increased by 64% to $44.7 million, with a ratio of one manager for every 3.5 staff members, more than allowed by law. 

The audit was conducted after the state legislature passed a bill to audit the agency tasked with oversight of public-school administration. State Rep. Ana-Maria Rodriguez, D-Richardson, who authored the bill, said she estimated last year that “the TEA’s staffing bloat might have reached 50%” under Morath. “It turns out, it was much worse than we imagined,” she said.

“Management headcount grew 38% while non-management staff grew 12%. Imagine if our schools had one principal for every three teachers. That would be extreme and ridiculous, but it's exactly what the audit uncovered at the TEA,” she said.

The auditor’s office said TEA “did not comply with statutory limitations on its ratio of management to staff.”

According to a database of state employee salaries published by the Texas Tribune, there are 1,233 TEA employees with a median salary of $97,455.

Nearly 600 earn salaries over $100,000; 28 make more than $200,000, with the Deputy Director III earning nearly $250,000.

Overall, the TEA “established comprehensive policies and processes that address the administration and oversight of contracts, grants, open-enrollment charter schools, and expenditure processing. However, the Agency's hiring practices created a management-heavy structure,” the auditor’s office said. 

When it comes to vendor contracts, the auditor’s office said TEA should “strengthen its compliance with vendor selection and formation requirements.” 

The audit found that 18% of 60 contracts that evaluators tested didn’t fit the required nepotism forms. According to state law, “purchasing personnel of a state agency must disclose information regarding certain relationships with, and direct or indirect pecuniary interests in, any party to a major contract with the state agency prior to the award of a major contract.”

It also found that TEA didn’t post required contracts and work statements on its website, including several contracts worth $100,000. It also didn’t verify that schools that contracted with private pre-K providers complied with all state requirements, including childcare licensing standards. 

The TEA also didn’t have minimum standards in place for monitoring state funded grant programs, the audit found.

When it comes to expenditures, TEA staff travel expenses were allowable and recorded accurately but the “process did not align with policy,” the audit found.

Overall, “While no unallowable expenses were identified, the Agency could strengthen the administration of pre-kindergarten public-private partnerships, digital signature oversight, certain contract management activities, and the oversight of State-funded grants,” the auditor’s office said.

Rodriguez sent a copy of the report to the Texas DOGE Committee requesting it to investigate additional concerns.

When asked to respond to the audit’s finding and what actions the TEA was taking to reduce administrative bloat, its media office emailed a statement, saying, the TEA “sends out $40 billion to school systems each year to support Texas public education. Within the scope of the audit, there were zero unallowable expenses identified, and the results were extremely clean.” 

It also said the TEA “has already begun implementing identified improvements” in response to opportunities the auditor’s office identified for the agency to improve on. 

It also said that when compared to the more than 100 state agencies reviewed by the auditor’s office, “TEA is the third leanest, most efficient state agency with regard to the ratio of employees to total appropriations.” 

The TEA also said its employees’ average salary increase of 10.82% from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2024 was lower than the state average of more than 100 state agencies reviewed, which averaged 18.51%.

When compared to state education agencies nationwide, it says, “TEA is the single most efficient state education agency (smallest staffing ratio compared to statewide enrollment) in the country.”