Library cuts and teachers quitting: Texas’s takeover of Houston schools

Teachers and other staff in the Houston Independent school district (HISD), which serves the fourth most populous city in the US, are calling for the state-appointed superintendent of the district to be removed amid a surge in resignations of employees, cuts to libraries and implementation of rigid school-reform curriculum.

The Republican governor, Greg Abbott, announced last year that the state of Texas would take control over HISD in June 2023 and replace democratically elected school board members with state-appointed ones. The move was criticized as part of Abbott’s agenda of expanding charter schools in Texas, as one of his legislative priorities – pushing a bill to expand vouchers for charter schools – failed to garner enough support to pass in 2023.

Related: Texas took over a failing Houston school district. Will its militaristic structure work?

Floyd Mike Miles, the CEO of charter school corporation Third Futures Schools, was appointed superintendent of the Houston Independent school district last June by the Texas education agency. Miles previously served as superintendent of the Dallas school district before resigning in 2015.

An online petition calling for Miles’ removal has received more than 13,000 signatures. The petition criticizes Miles’ spending of $470,000 of district funds on a school play produced by a family member, and his role in keeping several schools that were having heating issues open this winter.

The petition was started by the Houston Education Association, a chapter of the teachers’ union, the National Education Association. In Texas, teachers are prohibited by law from collective bargaining rights through a union.

Under Miles, the district is implementing a New Education System (NES) reform program, where teachers are directed to teach based on provided curriculum and scripted lessons with their pay tied to standardized test score performances, and proficiency screenings to retain their jobs at NES schools.

In February, an education professor at the University of Houston suspended teaching a course in protest of the rigid lesson requirements in HISD that he said made it impossible for his students to complete their assignments.

By next school year, 130 schools in Houston will be under the NES program.

Brandie Dowda worked as the librarian at Burrus elementary school in Houston when she was informed last summer that she would be losing her position as the school changed to an NES school, which meant the library would be converted into a disciplinary center for students.

She explained that when she took the position, the school had not had a librarian for years. She said she had been excited to start a long-term building plan for the school library and had moved closer to the school with plans to stay there for years. She was told her position was being eliminated in July 2023. She declined a different position and was transferred to another school with an open library.

“To take books away from these neighborhoods, where they are essentially the neighborhood library, it doesn’t make sense. My heart broke for my Burrus kids. It was awful and heartbreaking,” said Dowda. “I was fully invested, but these kids only had me for a year. I loved them, and they enjoyed coming to the library and I was starting to make a difference.”

She provided photos of her school library’s conversion, where library shelves were left barren and the majority of books had been removed.

Now, her new school is slated to join the NES program, which will eliminate her position again.

“The kids don’t understand, and I don’t understand, and I can’t explain to them why they’re going to lose their library. A lot of them don’t live close to a public library so this is where they get their books,” added Dowda. “I do so much more than scan books. I teach lessons. I teach information literacy, I help kids find books right for them they actually want to read. Kids reading is what will increase literacy.

She said the cuts were being made in “book deserts” where children do not have easy access to libraries. “These school libraries serve these communities,” she said.

According to circulation data from the Houston Independent school district, the number of books checked out per student at NES schools dwindled to nearly zero compared to five to 12 books a student at non-NES schools in the district from August 2023 to January 2024.

A librarian at a non-NES school who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation said employees are worried about their schools potentially being forced into the NES program and that fear has taken the joy out of school.

“I was told I should start looking for something new because it’s possible my position won’t exist next year,” they said. “It’s very, very apparent that the teachers are unhappy.”

From August through early January, 633 teachers resigned from HISD, according to information obtained by Houston Public Media through a public records request. During the same time period in the 2022-23 school year, 331 teachers quit. The year before, only 309 resigned.

An elementary school teacher at a non-NES school in Houston who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation criticized the teacher evaluations that are being implemented by the district.

“They use this made-up evaluation system to make it look like these teachers aren’t good,” they said. “It makes no sense that money is being spent on coming after certain teachers and using attorneys for the district to make sure teachers lose in whatever way possible.”

Melissa Yarborough, who teaches English as a second language at Navarro middle school in Houston, resigned in January 2024 during her third year teaching at the school over the rigid lesson plans enacted by the district and adopted by her school, which is transitioning to an NES school in fall 2024. She also has children currently attending NES elementary schools in Houston.

“All of Mike Miles’ policies are based around the idea that teachers don’t know what they’re doing. Teachers are bad for the kids. We have to fix the teachers,” said Yarborough. “I read about best research practices, I went to school for this. I’m certified, I have my master’s in education and curriculum instruction. So to be forced to do what I know is not helping the kids, and I can see that it’s a struggle for them and for me, and to continue to push these bad education practices every day, I couldn’t stay and do that.”

She criticized the rigid, scripted lesson plans provided to teachers from the district and the lack of any autonomy in deviating from the lesson slides, which she said are often inaccurate or mismatched, and that teachers are no longer allowed to give quizzes or tests, relying only on daily learning tests from the lesson plans provided by the district.

“Lesson planning is now called annotating and internalizing,” continued Yarborough. “You must internalize your lesson, which, to me, is always very belittling to hear those words. It made me feel like they were patronizing and talking down to me. Like I wasn’t a professional, who knew how to make good lessons.”

The Houston Independent school district would not comment for this story after multiple attempts.