AUSTIN, TX — Today, TPPF’s Government Reform & Oversight Coalition released its first major research report exposing the Education Cartel in Texas, a network of consultants, vendors, and special interests profiting off of the state’s school bond system at taxpayers’ expense.
The report, “Hijacked: How the Bond Process is Being Used Against Taxpayers,” reveals how billions of dollars in local school bond debt are driven by coordinated financial incentives that prioritize insiders over taxpayers.
As of 2026, school bond-related debt in Texas has surpassed $236 billion, placing a significant and growing burden on taxpayers across the state.
“This report marks a critical milestone in TPPF’s work to expose the Education Cartel,” said Mandy Drogin, GROC Senior Fellow. “What we’re seeing is a system where insiders benefit from pushing ever-larger bond packages while taxpayers are left footing the bill. It’s not just inefficient, it’s fundamentally unfair.”
“This is a system that has been hijacked,” said Judge A. Shepard, GROC Policy Analyst and author of the report. “Small political contributions from interested vendors can translate into massive taxpayer-funded payouts once bonds pass. That creates a powerful incentive structure that drives up debt and undermines accountability.”
The release of this report represents a major expansion of TPPF’s work under GROC to expose the structural drivers of runaway local spending, including taxpayer-funded lobbying and the Education Cartel.
Read the full research paper here.
Watch our Parent Empowerment episode on the Education Cartel.
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