Texas state officials take over Houston school system amid contentious political battle

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas education officials said Wednesday they will assume control of the embattled Houston school district after a long and slogging legal battle over a proposed intervention.

The state announced that it will soon appoint a new superintendent and a board of managers in Texas' largest district and the eighth-largest district in the United States as a debate ensues along political party lines.

The move to Houston comes after one city school failed to meet state standards for more than five years.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, told reporters on Wednesday he's outraged over the decision.

"The state deserves an F on how they have handled the process up to this point. Just a flat-out F," Turner said. "No community engagement, no engagement with the parents, no information being provided to the students, dropping this in the midst of spring break, creating a great deal of disruption, anxiety, and stress.

"The state deserves an F," Turner continued. "So who takes them over?"

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State takeover of Houston schools not unusual nationwide

In recent years, schools in other big cities including Philadelphia, New Orleans, Detroit, Providence, Rhode Island, and Little Rock, Arkansas, have gone through state takeovers, which are generally viewed as a last resort for underperforming schools and are often met with community backlash.

A Journal of Policy Analysis and Management report in January 2022 noted that in majority-minority school districts, racial makeup became more of a predictor of state takeover than academic performance. A majority of students in Houston's district are Latino and Black, according to current federal statistics.

Critics argue that state interventions generally have not led to big improvements.

Unlike in New York and Chicago, Houston public schools are not under mayoral control. However, as expectations of a takeover mounted, the city’s Democratic leaders unified in opposition.

In a letter to the Houston district on Wednesday, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s education commissioner Mike Morath noted he would name new managers for Houston's school system

Morath cited a seven-year record of poor academic performance at one of the district’s roughly 50 high schools, Wheatley High, as well as poor performances at several other campuses.

“The governing body of a school system bears ultimate responsibility for the outcomes of all students. While the current Board of Trustees has made progress, systemic problems in Houston ISD continue to impact district students,” Morath wrote in his six-page letter.

Morath commended the district's current school board members for trying to make progress and noted the district does operate some of the highest-performing schools in the state.

“But prior academic performance issues continue to require action under state law,” Morath said. “Even with a delay of three full years caused by legal proceedings, systemic problems across Houston ISD continue to impact students most in need of collective support.”

In January, the Texas Supreme Court said Morath had the right under the state's accountability law to intervene in the district's operations. Earlier this month, the Houston school board voted to drop its lawsuit challenging the takeover plans which it was first notified of in 2019.

"All of us Texans have an obligation and should come together to reinvent HISD in a way that will ensure that we’re going to be providing the best quality education for those kids," Abbott said Wednesday.

Though Morath didn’t appoint a new superintendent or board members Wednesday, he called for Houston residents interested in serving on the board to contact the state education agency.

But Turner told reporters Wednesday the agency has already chosen someone from Dallas to become the new superintendent, replacing Millard House II.

The Houston schools have been improving their state scores for many of its campuses, school board president Dani Hernandez said Wednesday. Since 2019, the district has decreased the number of failing schools from about 50 to about 10, she said.

“I do think HISD has a lot of room to grow,” Hernandez told the Austin-American Statesman. “I think that the elected board is doing what they need to do to get there and has significantly improved over the last couple of years.”

However, many parents and stakeholders are apprehensive about the state takeover since they don’t know who will serve on the board, she said.

“Whoever is in charge, we hope that they are there to make sure that all students have an equitable education and that all students are learning,” Hernandez said.

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Texas lawmakers' response to the Houston schools takeover

For Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Republican who represents parts of northwestern Houston and sits on the Senate Education Committee, the state takeover of the Houston district was necessary.

“The school itself is a symptom of a problem,” Bettencourt told the Statesman on Wednesday.

These types of turnarounds usually take two to six years, but Houston’s intervention could be done sooner than later with the right guidance, Bettencourt said, adding that the district was marred with corruption and improper practices, he said.

“These are things that don’t happen in other school districts,” Bettencourt said.

On the other hand, Democratic lawmakers were furious with the Texas education agency's move.

Rep. Alma Allen, a Democratic legislator who represents a swath of southern Houston and is vice chairwoman of the House Public Education Committee, worried the takeover will harm students by removing local control.

“This is upsetting the whole, not only (the) school district, this is upsetting the whole city,” Allen said.

The implications go beyond Houston, she said.

“It’s a national movement,” Allen said. “The Republicans are planning to take over education in the United States.”

Allen has filed a bill this legislative session that would give TEA the option to appoint a board of managers or close down a campus, rather than make it a requirement if a campus fails five years in a row.

Allen was one of several Democrats who spoke at a news conference Wednesday to express their outrage.

“We’re really very pissed off, quite frankly,” said Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, chairman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. “Enough is enough.”

Reynolds is worried the takeover will mean less representation for students of color in Houston, he said.

“This is an upfront power grab,” Reynolds said. “This is an attempt to push vouchers, to promote and push the things Gov. Abbott cares about.”

Abbott has been on a tour around Texas advocating for parental control and the use of public money for private school vouchers.

The governor said Wednesday that the Houston district's academic issues are deep-rooted and systemic.

“There has been a longtime failure by HISD, and the victims of that failure are the students,” Abbott told reporters during a news conference Wednesday.

Abbott disputed any suggestion that the takeover was linked to the school choice debate currently unfolding in the Texas Legislature.

“All that is completely separate from what is happening with HISD,” Abbott said.

Timeline of the Texas state takeover of Houston schools

The pathway to Texas' takeover of the Houston school district began in 2019 when state leaders told the district it would appoint a board of managers because Wheatley High School had failed to meet state academic standards for multiple years.

At the same time, state investigators found multiple Texas Open Meetings Act violations and improper interference with vendor selection from board trustees who are no longer on the board, The Houston Chronicle reported.

The district filed a lawsuit in 2020 that wound its way up to the Texas Supreme Court. In January, the Supreme Court released an opinion that state education agency had the authority to take over the Houston district.

Statewide implications of the Houston school district takeover

The takeover should be a concern for superintendents around the state, especially those in large urban districts, said David DeMatthews, associate professor at the University of Texas Department of Educational Leadership and Policy.

“Superintendents, especially in large districts, are coming to terms with the fact the state is not a partner,” DeMatthews said. “The state is not there to be transparent. The accountability system is a sham.”

Since 2019, when the state began the takeover process, the Houston district has improved student performance, DeMatthews said.

“If HISD has made improvements, the state should be backing away right now and it's doing the opposite,” DeMatthews said.

In the Austin school district, Mendez Middle School has been in hot water since 2013, when it failed to meet state standards.

In Texas, a district in which a campus doesn’t reach state academic standards for five consecutive years could face state intervention, including the replacement of the district’s school board members with state-appointed trustees.

The Austin district has avoided the drastic move partly because the state didn’t rate schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and because it has partnered with charter networks to run Mendez Middle School.

But officials at other districts shouldn’t be concerned because the situation surrounding Houston district is so unique, Bettencourt said.

"These schools have been on and off the improvement list for the better part of a decade," Bettencourt said.

Contributing: Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Houston ISD takeover: Lawmakers worry as TEA seizes control of schools