Eight years of federal forms filed by the Barbers Hill Education Foundation show it returned just 3 percent of monies it received to the Barbers Hill Independent School District. A specialist suggests the district is using the foundation to evade the state’s “Robin Hood” recapture system.
This information was gleaned from Form 990s that the foundation, a nonprofit organization, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Texas Scorecard reviewed forms filed for the years 2015 to 2021, and 2023, comparing total contributions and grants received in a given year with grants given back to the district. There was no 2022 filing available on the IRS website.
Barbers Hill Education Foundation (BHEF) advertises itself as supporting Barbers Hill ISD. BHEF can send donor money to educators in the form of grants.
Of the more than $89 million BHEF received during that eight-year period, it reported giving back little more than $3 million to Barbers Hill ISD in the form of grants or gifts. According to its 990 for 2018, BHEF “regularly solicits funds from individuals and the business community.”
BHEF has published little information about its donors. Publicized corporate donors include Sonic, Whataburger, Chick-fil-a, and ExxonMobil. The school district reported a $25,000 donation from Zac Isaacks, a Barbers Hill high school 2008 graduate, in September 2023.
The pattern of money flows based on the Form 990s is tracked below.
The 2023 filing was the only year in which grants exceeded contributions received, with more than $744,000 given to the district while receiving $106,240—down from $14.4 million in 2021.
As previously reported, half of Barbers Hill ISD’s leadership team members serve as BHEF directors, including Greg Poole, who is both the district superintendent and foundation executive director. The school district maintains the foundation’s accounting, and OpenTheBooks.com reported the school district made more than $41 million in payments to the foundation from 2019 to 2021—$16 million in 2021, $14.8 million in 2020, and $10 million in 2019.
The 990s BHEF filed during that time period reported receiving more than $55 million in contributions, but did not explicitly identify the school district as a source. In a recording discussing BHEF, Poole said the state “can’t touch our foundation.”
Dr. Mary Bone, a former Round Rock ISD trustee with experience dealing with foundation and school district relationships, called the 3.43 percent return over eight years “extremely low.” She previously highlighted the foundation’s 2021 IRS 990 form, which reported it gave back only 2.3 percent to the district.
Mandy Drogin, a K-12 education reform specialist with the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), agreed with Bone about the low return rate. “They are fundraising off of the ISD’s Name Image and Likeness, only to return less than 4% to the ISD,” she wrote. “Given that Barbers Hill Education is essentially using Name, Image and Likeness of the government funded ISD, and the overlapping leadership, I’d say anything less than 75% to the ISD is ridiculous.”
“Barbers Hill ISD is exploiting a loophole to circumvent recapture, which ultimately leaves other Texans to pick up the tab. It’s a deeply unfair situation,” commented James Quintero, also of TPPF. Recapture, also known as “Robin Hood,” is the system whereby the state collects excess property tax monies from wealthy school districts and redistributes it to poorer ones.
“Texans deserve their government to be transparent, accountable, and above board in every regard. What’s happening in BHISD is anything but,” Quintero wrote.
TPPF published a report in January about BHEF. Cameron Abrams and Judge Shepard found that BHEF had $175 million in its coffers at the end of 2024, making it the largest foundation in America.
Abrams and Shepard wrote that since 2010, BHEF had only given $2.2 million in grants to students and teachers. Meanwhile, the researchers found BHEF to be acting more like “an asset manager than a grant-making entity.”
It has more than $26 million in “alternative investments” and more than $85 million in equity and mutual funds. The report also notes that sometime in the past, an unknown person or entity gave BHEF a “very large initial capital,” which the foundation put into long-term investments.
“Moreover, through June 30, 2024, the foundation generated substantial investment earnings,” Abrams and Shepard wrote. “Although the foundation does not own or control any ISD capital assets, it commands a giant pool of private capital large enough to influence priorities, supplement public expenditures, and shape how and where school district resources are ultimately directed.”
Scrutiny heightened over the school district’s ties with BHEF after the foundation sued State Rep. Terri Leo Wilson (R–Galveston) for allegations she made against Nathan Watkins, her opponent in the March 2026 Republican primary.
Watkins’ ties with BHEF and its $6 million purchase of property from his employer, Americus Holdings, raised red flags for Leo Wilson. BHEF and Americus have reportedly partnered to develop a luxury apartment complex. Leo Wilson accused Watkins of running to legalize potentially illegal ISD-foundation dealings.
The foundation is trying to drop its lawsuit against Leo Wilson, but because she filed a motion to dismiss under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, she must agree to it. Leo Wilson, who defeated Watkins in the March 2026 GOP primary, told Texas Scorecard she has no intention of doing so. A dismissal hearing is scheduled for April 7.
The Texas Education Agency stated on February 25 that it is investigating Barbers Hill ISD.
Neither Barbers Hill ISD nor BHEF responded to Texas Scorecard’s request for comment before publication.
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Source Documents
Texas Scorecard reviewed the following documents for this article.
BHEF IRS 990 Form 2015
BHEF IRS 990 Form 2016
BHEF IRS 990 Form 2017
BHEF IRS 990 Form 2018
BHEF IRS 990 Form 2019
BHEF IRS 990 Form 2020
BHEF IRS 990 Form 2021
BHEF IRS 990 Form 2023
Citizens wishing to conduct a deep dive should click the links above.
