Facing Facts: Charter Schools in Texas
The quantitative research behind a 2025 report on Texas charter-school spending, staffing, and oversight.
I did all the quantitative research and analysis for Facing Facts, a report published by Our Schools Our Democracy in February 2025 through my work at Data for Public Education.
I assembled and matched the source records, checked fiscal totals, and kept a record of where the numbers came from. During review, I also caught incorrect units and estimates that needed to be labeled as estimates.
The report compares charter schools and school districts on spending, staffing, and other measures. My contribution was the data and analysis; the report’s writing, design, and publication were a broader team effort.
The figure below reproduces one comparison from page 5. It shows the share of operating expenditures spent on central administration, using 2022–23 data.
2022–23 operating expenditures · report page 5
Central administration’s share of spending
One of the report’s comparisons: the share of total annual operating expenditures spent on central administration.
Statewide aggregates from Facing Facts, February 2025. These are expenditure shares, not per-student amounts. The report documents its TEA sources and methods in the notes.