🚨 BREAKING: Texas REPUBLICANS announces takeover of Houston schools by UNELECTED board, stirring anger

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Texas announces takeover of Houston schools, stirring anger

Texas officials have announced a takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student school district. The decision Wednesday follows allegations of misconduct by school trustees and chronically low academic scores at one of the nearly 50 high schools in the nation’s eighth-largest district.

apnews.com

Texas announces takeover of Houston schools, stirring anger​

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas officials on Wednesday announced a state takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student public school district, the eighth-largest in the country, acting on years of threats and angering Democrats who assailed the move as political.

The announcement, made by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s education commissioner, amounts to one of the largest school takeovers ever in the U.S.

It also deepens a high-stakes rift between Texas’ largest city, where Democrats wield control locally and state Republican leaders have sought increasing authority in the wake of election fumbles and pandemic restrictions.

Other big cities including Philadelphia, New Orleans and Detroit in recent decades have gone through state takeovers, which are generally viewed as last resorts for underperforming schools and are often met with community backlash. Critics argue that past outcomes show little improvement following state interventions.

The state began making moves toward a takeover of the Houston Independent School District in 2019, following allegations of misconduct by school trustees, including inappropriate influencing of vendor contracts, and chronically low academic scores at one of its roughly 50 high schools.

The district sued to block a takeover, but new education laws subsequently passed by the GOP-controlled state Legislature and a January ruling from the Texas Supreme Court cleared the way for the state to seize control.

Schools in Houston are not under mayoral control, unlike in cities such as New York or Chicago, but as expectations of a takeover mounted, the city’s Democratic leaders unified in opposition.

Most of Houston’s school board members have been replaced since 2019. District officials also say the state is ignoring academic strides made across city schools.

Race is also an issue because the overwhelming majority of students in Houston schools are Hispanic or Black. Domingo Morel, a professor of political science and public services at New York University, has studied school takeovers nationwide and said the political dynamics in Texas are similar to where states have intervened elsewhere.

The demographics in Houston, Morel said, are also similar.

“If we just focus on taking over school districts because they underperform, we would have a lot more takeovers,” Morel said. “But that’s not what happens.”

 

[LadyJ2]

Republicans mad Dora the Explorer was re-elected back in November. They thought they got her ass out of there.



Mattress Mack and his racist business bro partners mad AF.

But as a parent, if it isn’t a magnet school I wouldn’t send my dog to an HISD school. They are that bad.

The kids deserve better.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Texas Education Agency will take control of Houston ISD in June​

Brian LopezMarch 15, 2023

Millard House II, superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, delivers the HISD State of the Schools Address in Houston on March 3, 2023. The Texas Education Agency will replace House and the district's school board as part of a state takeover. Joseph Bui for The Texas Tribunenone
The announcement comes almost four years after the agency first moved to take the district over.
Updated: 11:21 AM Central
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After a prolonged legal battle and weeks of speculation, the Texas Education Agency on Wednesday confirmed it’s removing Houston Independent School District’s democratically elected school board and superintendent, effectively putting the state in charge of its largest school district.

The TEA will appoint a “board of managers” and replace Superintendent Millard House II and the current school board after June 1. The move is in response to years of poor academic outcomes at a single high school in the district, which TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said requires his agency to either close that campus or appoint a new board to oversee the district.

“Even with a delay of three full years caused by legal proceedings, systemic problems in Houston ISD continue to impact students most in need of our collective support,” Morath wrote in a letter to district leaders Wednesday.

Documents first reported by The Texas Tribune on Tuesday night show the agency had been getting ready to appoint new leaders. Before taking down the documents from its website, the agency posted job applications for the new board of managers, which would replace the current school board.

Houston ISD, with 76 schools and an enrollment of nearly 200,000 students, will now be the largest district the agency has taken over since 2000, when it first placed a board of managers to oversee a struggling school district.

The TEA commissioner decides how long the board is in place. Usually, these sort of takeovers last two to six years.

State Rep. Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, said the agency is gambling with the livelihood and education of hundreds of thousands of kids.

“We have way bigger issues weighing on our state that could use the governor’s immediate attention,” Johnson said.

State Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, said Morath met with the Houston delegation Wednesday morning to explain the takeover process.

“We’re outraged,” Reynolds said. “This is a dark day for HISD.”

Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said the teachers union opposes the state replacing the democratically elected board.

"We will work night and day to make sure that students have access to specific programs and services that they need and deserve to receive a high-quality public education in Houston schools,” she said.

Morath and the agency first moved to force out the district’s school board in 2019 in response to allegations of misconduct by trustees and years of low student performance at Phillis Wheatley High School. The district pushed back and sued, but ultimately, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in January that the agency could move forward with its plan to take over the district.

“In prior years, Houston ISD was governed by a Board of Trustees that did not focus on improving student outcomes,” Morath wrote in his letter. “Instead, the Board conducted chaotic board meetings marred by infighting while Board members routinely exceeded their authority, directing staff in violation of the school laws of Texas.”

Student outcomes have improved at both Phillis Wheatley and the district at large since Morath first announced a possible takeover. The TEA, which grades schools and districts each year based on their academic achievement, gave the high school a grade of F in 2019. Last year, Phillis Wheatley got a C, and Houston ISD as a whole received a B. In the last 19 months, HISD has made strides reducing the number of its campuses with a D or F rating from 50 to 10. Ninety-four percent of HISD schools now earn a grade of A, B or C.

Ruth Kravetz, co-founder of the Community Voices for Public Education, a local education advocacy group, said the commissioner should have been congratulating Houston ISD for its recent academic improvement instead of punishing it.

"The takeover of the largest school district in Texas is a politically motivated, irresponsible experiment that will worsen inequities and disenfranchise Houston voters," she said.

The TEA has taken over 15 school districts. It still manages Marlin ISD, outside of Waco, and Shepherd ISD, east of Conroe. The agency gave back control of eight districts to their local school boards; in other instances, it has shut them down or annexed them to other districts.

Chloe Sikes, deputy director of policy at the Intercultural Development Research Association, said research shows that school takeovers are not effective in increasing student achievement. Instead, there is an increase in teacher turnover and lack of communication between the community and an appointed board.

“In some cases, it’s led to greater turnover and turmoil in the district,” Sikes said

 

[RamsayBolton]

And removing all mentions of black history from a democratic district

Race is also an issue because the overwhelming majority of students in Houston schools are Hispanic or Black.

republicans have GOT TO GO

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

And removing all mentions of black history from a democratic district

republicans have GOT TO GO

We can’t get people to even do THAT

 

[Paper Boi]

fascism is here

 

[Killah Ray]

This is truly fukking terrifying and a sign of future bullshyt other states (Florida especially) are gonna start pulling this shyt in more liberal school districts.

 

[Kenny West]

On the bright side the poorer quality education will make texas neighborhoods a lot more dangerous in the future Your wish coming true @BrothaZay


Jokes aside, lol @ any self respecting black man being governed by a klansman

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

This is truly fukking terrifying and a sign of future bullshyt other states (Florida especially) are gonna start pulling this shyt in more liberal school districts.

They always find a way in through the back door. This is a major boost to private and religiously funded conservative educational projects.

This is NOT good.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

It’s amazing how unserious this forum is

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

so they got conservative NON educators on the board now

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

WOW

UNELECTED SCHOOL BOARD???????

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

@that guy While you're banned/bushed this is the sort of shyt you need to be learning about.

THIS is white supremacy