Abbott takes over Houston ISD, largest Texas school district, due to low performance
Jeremiah Poff
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A senior official in Gov. Greg Abbott‘s (R-TX) administration announced Wednesday that he would be appointing a board of managers tasked with the administration of the Houston Independent School District following a protracted court battle.
In a Wednesday letter, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath informed the school district that the Houston school board would be stripped of its authority and a board of managers appointed by Morath would temporarily take control of the school district due to low academic achievement at several district schools, most notably Wheatley High School, where only 27% of students met the state’s grade standards in the 2021-2022 school year. He also announced he would be appointing a new superintendent.
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“A school board has a solemn responsibility to focus above all else on serving all students enrolled in its school system,” Morath wrote. “It does this by ensuring its superintendent is positioned to provide a strong set of supports for district teachers and staff who work directly with those students, not just on some of its campuses, but all of them. The intervention I am ordering is focused on ensuring the Houston ISD governing team is better supporting its students.”
The state takeover of the school district’s day-to-day operations was first attempted in 2019, but a lawsuit filed by the school district secured an injunction against the move that was in place from January 2020 until January 2023, when the Texas Supreme Court ruled the takeover was legal.
Morath and the TEA’s initial attempt to appoint a board of managers stemmed from the academic performance of Wheatley High School, which had failed to meet state benchmarks for seven consecutive years. A fact sheet from the agency reviewed by the Washington Examiner also said several members of the school board had violated Texas law on multiple occasions.
“In the time since that injunction was imposed, a former board president, the district’s chief operating officer, and four district administrators either pled guilty or were indicted for illegal activity related to a bribery scheme,” Morath said, referring to a criminal case that saw former Houston ISD Board of Education President Rhonda Skillern-Jones and several other district administrators plead guilty to federal corruption charges.
Morath explained that the intervention was required by state law, and despite progress made since the initial takeover attempt, he was still required to appoint the board of managers because of the seven years of “unacceptable academic performance” at Wheatley.
“The governing body of a school system bears ultimate responsibility for the outcomes of all students,” Morath wrote. “While the current Board of Trustees has made progress, systemic problems in Houston ISD continue to impact district students.”
The state takeover of the school district was panned by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Texas Federation of Teachers, and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
“You cannot run school districts, cities, and counties from Austin, Texas,” Turner said. “You tell me how this benefits the kids? Instead of grading the students and the teachers, the TEA needs to grade themselves on how they are handling this. I give them an F.”
https://twitter.com/KHOU/status/1636103277816184835?s=20
The ACLU of Texas said the “hostile takeover” would have negative effects on teachers and schools in Houston and insinuated that racial bias was a motivating factor.
“The state takeover of HISD is not about public education — it’s about political control of a 90% black and brown student body in one of the country’s most diverse cities,” the legal group tweeted. “And it’s not what our students and teachers need.”
https://twitter.com/ACLUTx/status/1636064974404571138?s=20
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In his letter, Morath said the members of the board of managers would be selected from within the Houston ISD community, and he welcomed applicants that “committed to serving on behalf of the students of the district and the community.”
“The members of the Board of Managers will be responsible for overseeing the management of Houston ISD, including oversight of the district’s efforts to address and correct the deficiencies [in the district], and for implementation of effective structural and procedural improvement strategies for long-term positive change,” Morath wrote.