HISD comes under fire in TexasWatchDog.com investigation

Texas Watchdog has an investigation on some Houston Independent School District (HISD) employees who have been issued credit cards and have bad credit or bankruptcies:

The Houston Independent School District has given out credit cards to more than a dozen employees with bankruptcies on their credit records, including some who ran up debts to local school districts, according to a review of records by Texas Watchdog.

At least two HISD employees who currently hold district-issued "procurement cards" or "p-cards" -- a form of credit card -- previously had their HISD wages garnished to pay off creditors, Texas Watchdog found.

Those with tarnished credit backgrounds included a school psychologist, a high school registrar, a grant writer and several teachers. One card-holding teacher filed for bankruptcy twice, once in 1996 and again in 2007, and in the latter filing claimed to own $2,500 in furs and jewelry.

A Texas Watchdog review turned up 18 HISD p-card holders who disclosed in bankruptcy court documents that they were employed by the school district. Texas Watchdog researched the bankruptcy status of only a fraction of the the HISD p-card holders, so there could be many others among the list of 1,200 card holders.

Read the full story Thursday at www.texaswatchdog.org

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