‘Tough Grandma’ Steps Up Audits in Texas

By Bess Keller

When Carole Keeton Rylander was elected the Texas state comptroller in November 1998, Betty Ressel wondered whether she’d still have a job.

No need for worry. Shortly after the election, the new comptroller announced that she wanted to expand, not disband, her independent agency’s unusual school-management-review program. And she wanted Ms. Ressel, a certified public accountant who has been with the program since 1993, to remain as its head.

"I thought I’d hear: I’m Carole Keeton Rylander, and you’re fired," recalled Ms. Ressel, the manager of the Texas School Performance Review Program. Instead, the state’s new chief accountant called the morning after the election to talk about beefing up the...