According to a new report, Barbers Hill ISD shoveled more than $97 million into its education foundation, which is investing in real estate.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) reports that these transfers took place from January 2012 to June 2025. School board resolutions showed that a majority of the funds came from supplemental payments under Chapter 313 agreements that were routed to the education foundation instead of the district.
Chapter 313 was a corporate welfare program that allowed Independent School Districts to offer decade-long tax breaks to businesses, including unreliable solar and wind generators.
State Rep. Terri Leo Wilson (R–Galveston) raised concerns this year about the exact nature of the relationship between the school district, its foundation, and her March 2026 primary opponent Nathan Watkins, who is one of the foundation’s directors.
BHISD and BHEF share much of the same leadership, including Greg Poole, who is superintendent of the school district and the foundation’s executive director.
Nathan Watkins serves on the BHEF board of directors, but he also occupies the position of vice president for Americus Holdings—a private development firm that has partnered with BHEF to develop a luxury apartment complex.
“Education foundations are generally formed to solicit donations from the community in order to support a specific district. In this way, these foundations serve as a financial resource,” TPPF’s Judge Shepard wrote. “However, when this dynamic is reversed, a school district may—for some unknown reason—store, shield, or channel money through a foundation. In BHISD’s case, this may have been done to bolster the foundation’s real estate-related assets and holdings.”
While state lawmakers allowed Chapter 313 to expire in December 2022, replacing it in 2023 with the Jobs, Education, Technology and Innovation Act, 313 agreements made before that time are still in effect.
In January 2024, BHISD entered into an agreement with Lee College. The district will construct a new branch campus for the college and collect the property taxes to support it. The district will keep the difference between the bills for maintenance and operations and total taxes collected as lease payments.
TPPF’s report warns that some education foundations have become powerful quasi‑governmental entities that operate outside normal transparency and ethics expectations.
The Texas House’s interim charges direct the House Select Committee on Governmental Oversight to examine these foundations, including questions raised by the BHISD–BHEF relationship.
“These bad actors have raised so much concern among state-level policymakers that, for the first time in recent history, the Texas House of Representatives’ interim charges include an explicit directive to examine education foundations and the controversies that surround them,” Shepard wrote.
Neither Poole nor Americus Holdings responded to a request for comment before publication. The district remains under investigation by the Texas Education Agency.
