Thumbs up, down
HISD’s trustees put on a show, while two schools are named among the nation’s best.
Looking for some must-see TV between Rockets playoffs and Astros games? Well, the newest hit show isn’t on Hulu or Netflix — it’s streaming HISD board meetings. Board President Rhonda Skillern-Jones pulled an unexpected heel-turn by calling her goon-squad on frustrated parents at the April 24 meeting. But on Thursday night, the crowd was out for revenge as parents and community members lined up to condemn and berate the board — and call for RSJ to be replaced as president.
So will RSJ step down? Will Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath replace the board? Will education reporter Shelby Webb teach us all her live-tweeting tricks? Find out at the next meeting.
Despite its recent troubles, two Houston ISD high schools remain among the nation’s best: Carnegie Vanguard High School ranked as the 15th best high school in the nation and DeBakey High School for Health Professions ranked 38th, according to US News and World Report.
In an impressive educational turnaround, YES Prep North Forest was rated as the 94th best high school in the nation. Just five years ago the entire North Forest ISD was shuttered by the state and absorbed by HISD.
YES Prep recently announced plans to open a charter in Cy Fair ISD and the local superintendent isn’t happy. Turns out that YES Prep won’t let its students graduate unless they get into college. At a time when Texas is trying to provide all sorts of avenues to success, it looks like the charters are keeping out the kids not aiming for a four-year degree. Public schools don’t get to play that game, and you’ve got to wonder how it affects their test scores.
Texas summers are cruel and usual enough. Now imagine enduring a heat wave while stuck in a sweltering, dank building that doesn’t have airconditioning. Well, Keith Milo Cole lived it. The 64-year-old inmate has diabetes, hypertension and cardiac problems, and was one of several Texas inmates to blow the whistle on our inhumane jail system.
At least 22 prisoners died from extreme indoor heat in Texas over 14 years. So thumbs up to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for hammering out a settlement with Edwards Law and the Texas Civil Rights Project to provide air conditioning for elderly and sick Texas prisoners. For now, the deal involves adding temporary air conditioning to the Pack Unit, a Navasota prison designated to house the elderly as well as inmates who use wheelchairs, canes and walkers.
This is a good first step, but the state needs to ensure that our prisons work to help rehabilitate prisoners, not steam them alive.
We had multiple “ozone action days” this week again in Houston, underscoring the need for a health registry to track asthma and other pollutionrelated conditions in our city and for continuing to fight to clean up our air.
This is why we can’t have nice things. The city’s Adopt-A-Drain system we know and love was apparently hacked by a “bad actor” who then named around 200 different drains after a sex toy website that we won’t name here so as to deny them the free publicity we presume they were seeking. Here’s to hoping the city gets everything fixed so everyone can get back to tending their Messy Drain Boys and Sir Drains Alots.
The NRA has long defended the right to keep and bear arms, but selling them to Iran is something new. Oliver North has been selected as the new president of the National Rifle Association. You may remember him from the Iran-Contra scandal, in which an actual deep state of military and White House officials illegally sold weapons to the Ayatollah and used the proceeds to circumvent Congress and fund rightwing guerrillas in Central America. We know what you’re thinking: Is it even legal for a convicted felon like North to own a firearm?
Turns out that, thanks in part to the ACLU, North’s three felony convictions were vacated as an indirect result of immunity granted during his congressional testimony.