KHOU-TV last night led with Texas Watchdog's report on wasteful travel spending at the Houston Independent School District.

From KHOU 11 reporter Kevin Reece:

The investigation by Texas Watchdog found that on numerous occasions HISD arranged travel to conferences for its employees within the final few weeks before the events.

Texas Watchdog highlights one specific example, a conference in Columbus, Ohio. Although the October 2008 conference was planned a year in advance, internal correspondence at HISD shows discussions on booking flights lasted until late September. Tickets that could have been purchased for $350, instead cost as much as $934 a piece.

"Money is not the overriding factor,” said Lee Ann O’Neal, the deputy editor of Texas Watchdog. “It's what's convenient for the employees it seems. And that's concerning."

HISD responded to KHOU's report, as well:

"There is some truth there to the fact that some employees are not taking advantage of the lowest possible fare,” said HISD spokesperson Norm Uhl when asked about HISD’s response to the Texas Watchdog report.

According to the district’s travel policy, employees are “encouraged to plan business travel at least 21 days in advance” but are not mandated to do so, Uhl said. He said it is a policy under review.

We appreciate KHOU's digging into HISD's loose travel policy.

See the Texas Watchdog story here that started it all.

See below the video report from KHOU:

Trent Seibert can be reached at trent@texaswatchdog.org or at 832-316-4994.

Photo by Flickr user redjar, used via a Creative Commons license