EL PASO, Texas – A Texas news site is calling out local education officials for extensive, expensive travel budgets that include first-class flights, luxury car rentals and fancy beachfront hotels.

The El Paso Times singled out El Paso Independent School District Juan Cabrera in particular for spending more than 100 days away from the district for travel over the last 14 months, at a cost of nearly $78,000.

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According to the Times:

Cabrera spent more than four times as many days outside the district as his counterparts in the Ysleta and Socorro school districts, according to records obtained under the Texas Public Information Act.

His expenses, which included first-class and Business Select flights, SUV rentals and Uber rides in luxury cars, more than double those of the Ysleta and Socorro superintendents combined.

The travel expenses were incurred as the county’s largest school district is considering dipping into its reserves to pay for employee raises, with the teachers’ associations advocating for officials to cut travel spending and certain programs to make ends meet.

Cabrera defended the sky-high travel bill as a necessity to rebuild the district’s reputation after a student test score scandal, and alleged some of the trips were aimed at landing grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

“It’s chasing opportunities, chasing money for the district and rebuilding a reputation at the state and nationally,” Cabrera said.

In total, Cabrera and EPISD board members racked up more than $115,000 in travel expenses from January 2016 to February 2017, about twice as much as other districts in the area. The travel included 53 trips by Cabrera,  15 by board president Dori Fenenbock, several by other school officials.

The trips included a $2,700 expense for Cabrera and Fenebock to attend the Philosophical Society of Texas’ 2016 conference in Houston, $2,157 for the superintendent to attend a Council of Great City Schools conference in Miami – where he stayed at a luxury beachfront hotel – and a $2,200 trip to New York City to visit with representatives from the TED-Ed organization.

Another trip involved Cabrera and Fenenbock traveling to Fort Bend, Texas to deliver a speech “as a favor” for Fort Bend school officials.

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On many of the trips, Cabrera traveled first class or business class, despite state law that forbids the more expensive seating unless it’s “medically necessary.”

Cabrera insisted that it was.

“I don’t know what the law is so you’ll have to show that to me,” he told the Times, “but because of my physical disability we decided to do that.”

Cabrera said he has a bum leg, and cannot stand for long periods of time and must elevate it on long flights.

The Times investigated the travel budgets of several other school districts, as well, but the spending paled in comparison to El Paso’s travel budget.

The total spending for superintendent and school board travel in the Ysleta Independent School District, for example, was less than $50,000. In the Socorro Independent School District it was about $64,000.

Revelations of the substantial travel expenses come amid an EAGnews investigation into similar questionable spending practices in school districts across the nation. EAGnews most recently highlighted more than $380,000 spent on travel for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania school officials, and a $331,000 travel expense in the Indianapolis, Indiana school district.

In Dayton, Ohio, the travel total hit nearly $600 for 2015-16, while Houston school employees racked up an astounding $3.6 million in travel expenses.

And like many of the districts in the EAGnews investigation, El Paso schools are facing heated criticism from the public and teachers union officials as district officials prepare for budget cuts for next school year.

“That many trips in that short amount of time for that much money – no, that needs to be looked at,” El Paso Teachers Association President Norma De La Rosa told the Times. “That needs to be cut.”

“Geeze,” El Paso American Federation of Teachers president Ross More said. “They need to invest their travel time in the classrooms, on the campuses.”