Mike Miles Cancels Moonlighting Contract with His Former Charter School Network

Houston ISD pays its state-appointed superintendent, Mike Miles, a base salary of $462,000, and the district also gave him a bonus of $173,660 approved by its state-appointed board in September. Yet, all along, the leader of Texas’ largest school district has also been moonlighting—earning another $190,000 over the past three years, according to receipts obtained by the Texas Observer, as a consultant for Third Future Schools (TFS), the Colorado-based charter school network he founded and previously led. 

In February, he renegotiated his TFS consulting contract to receive $30,000 per quarter—a 58 percent raise over his prior pay, based on documents the Observer obtained from a source. 

Miles’ contract with Houston ISD allowed him to do outside consulting. But his February agreement may have violated a 2025 state law that restricts moonlighting by administrators. 

House Bill 3372, which took effect June 22, 2025, bans public school administrators from moonlighting for companies that do business with their districts. It also bans superintendents and assistant superintendents from moonlighting for other school districts, charter schools, or education companies that provide curriculum or administration services to any district. (The law allows lower-level administrators to moonlight for the latter group of entities if their school board approves.) 

In response to a question about Miles’ February consulting agreement with TFS, an HISD spokesperson initially told the Observer in an April 7 email that Miles had complied with the new law: “Superintendent Miles has disclosed his prior affiliation with Third Future Schools, and all related matters have been reviewed to ensure compliance with HB 3372, District policy, and applicable legal requirements, with no impact on his duties leading Houston ISD.”

But after the Observer emailed questions to members of Houston ISD’s appointed school board, including a copy of the February agreement, the Houston ISD spokesperson emailed again, saying that Miles had cancelled the contract after it had “been carefully reviewed for compliance with HB 3372.” On April 8, the spokesperson wrote: “Following that review, Superintendent Miles proactively canceled his contract and will not accept any financial benefits from Third Future Schools, ensuring full alignment with the law. He remains fully focused on leading Houston ISD and delivering results for students.” No member of the Houston ISD board responded to the Observer’s questions. 

Protesters against the Houston ISD takeover (Courtesy of Community Voices for Public Education)

HB 3372, which was pushed by lawmakers in response to complaints about a different moonlighting superintendent in Willis ISD, forbids school district administrators from “receiv[ing] any financial benefit for the performance of personal services” for “any business entity that conducts or solicits business with the school district that employs the administrator.” It allows some administrators—excluding “a board of managers, superintendent, or assistant superintendent”—to receive benefit for services for “an education business that provides services regarding the curriculum or administration of any school district” or “another school district, open-enrollment charter school, or regional education service center” only if their school board votes to approve it.

TFS does not do business with Houston ISD. But TFS is the Colorado-based parent nonprofit of Third Future Schools-Texas (TFS-Texas), also a nonprofit. TFS-Texas does not do business with HISD either, but it does provide curriculum and administrative services to other Texas school districts.

State Representative Christina Morales, a Democrat who voted for HB 3372 and is a participant in the Commission on the HISD Takeover, a group that addresses grievances with the state intervention, told the Observer: “Mike Miles is running the largest school district in Texas like it’s his personal consulting firm. Houston families deserve better. …This is what HB 3372 was intended to stop.” 

Republican state Representative Will Metcalf, the bill’s author, said during an April 2025 hearing: “Concerns have been raised about administrators engaging in consulting work or other paid services that very well may be a conflict of interest or create the appearance of a conflict of interest. This undermines public trust and risks shifting focus away from the needs of students and our taxpayers.” 

Beyond the 2025 state law, Miles’ moonlighting with outside organizations during his time as the leader of Texas’ largest school district poses other ethical questions, said Brett Geier, a former superintendent who teaches K-12 educational leadership at Western Michigan University. Even as leader of a smaller district, Geier told the Observer, he spent 10 to 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, fulfilling his regular duties. “It baffles me how he has the amount of time that he has invested in that charter. It does seem to me to cross an ethical line.” 

The February agreement said Miles would “provide advice and counsel to the Core Team,” including to “connect via phone with Core Team members weekly to help solve problems, anticipate challenges, and suggest courses of action,” “provide input and suggestions on key initiatives and expansion,” and “provide advice and guidance on finance and overall network health.” Before February, Miles received $19,000 per quarter from TFS, based on a June 24, 2023, agreement the Observer obtained. 

Miles’ 2023 and 2026 agreements with TFS were signed by both Miles and Dwight Jones, TFS’ board president. According to the Houston Chronicle, Jones also leads a consulting business, Education Partners, which struck a deal worth nearly $1 million with the charter network International Leadership of Texas that Miles helped broker in July 2025. The Chronicle further reported that International Leadership of Texas received use of Houston ISD’s curriculum but that neither Miles nor the district received any payment.

Geier told the Observer that he thought Miles’ participation in brokering that contract represented another conflict of interest—particularly since the International Leadership of Texas operates three campuses in Houston ISD boundaries. “We’re in an age in education where we’re competing for students. His primary responsibility is increasing student achievement and enrollment in Houston,” Geier said. “It seems like there’s a huge conflict of interest there, because in a sense, it’s almost working against your own district.”

The state’s installment of Miles as Houston ISD superintendent and the deposing of its elected board members in 2023 has brought upheaval for the past three years. Miles has implemented TFS curriculum and strategies and touted improved academic ratings. But parents, students, and teachers in Houston ISD have complained that classroom learning has turned into round-the-clock test prep. ​Principals, teachers, and students have left in droves. 

Prior to her interview with the Observer, Morales met with Spanish-speaking parents who she said told her that children at White Elementary School, in the Latino and Chinese community of Sharpstown, were being taught by inexperienced, uncertified teachers without bilingual skills under Miles’ leadership. Morales is also worried that the board has decided to shutter 12 schools in predominantly poor Black and brown neighborhoods. 

“I believe that Mike Miles needs to stay focused on what’s best for the students, and not what’s best for his checkbook,” Morales said. 

Miles has used his tenure as Houston ISD superintendent to trumpet a curriculum that he’d coined the “New Education System” at TFS. In the meantime, TFS-Texas has attracted more business in the state. Under 2017’s Senate Bill 1882, which allows Texas public school districts to turn struggling schools over to private operators to avoid state takeovers, the organization currently runs SB 1882 partnerships at six campuses in five Texas school districts. Starting next school year, the nonprofit is set to run at least 19 campuses across 13 districts, as the Observer previously reported. 

According to TFS-Texas’ IRS 990 forms, the nonprofit earned more than $100 million in revenue in the 2021 to 2024 fiscal years from these 1882 partnerships. 

“This just feels like extortion,” said Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers. “How can we be paying [Miles] $400,000 or something in tax dollars for him to then use his position to enrich himself and this other company. That seems to be not only condoned by the Texas Education Agency, but actively supported by the agency itself. That seems wrong to me. Why are our state reps and our elected officials not questioning this and not calling the [TEA] commissioner to task for it?” 

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