Dems look to expand majority on ed board

The future looked bleak for Texas’ last remaining county education department in early 2019.

After years of state-level efforts to abolish the Harris County Department of Education, a new majority of trustees signaled it would take a more critical look at the agency’s inner workings and whether it still served the core function of supporting local school districts.

Less than a year later, the entire makeup of the board has changed. Now a 5-2 majority of HCDE supporters oversee the department and its $128 million annual budget, a majority that could grow after the November election.

The two board seats on this year’s ballot — two of the three at-large positions — are held by Republicans Don Sumners and Michael Wolfe, the remaining trustees who have been critical of the department in the past. Sumners is seeking re-election, and although Wolfe is not running for his old seat, his father, Bob Wolfe, is.

Sumners’ Democratic opponent is David Brown, an educator who works for Change Happens, a Third Ward-based nonprofit that provides mentoring, drug prevention and other services to low-income youth. Democrat Erica Davis, chief of staff for Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen, is running against Wolfe. If Brown and Davis capture the two at-large positions, board president Eric Dick — who has opposed efforts to shut down the department — would be the lone remaining Republican trustee.

Still, state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a northwest Harris Coun

ty Republican who has spearheaded efforts to shut down HCDE in recent legislative sessions, said the outcome of the election will not have much effect on the tenor of the board.

“There won’t be any way for Republicans to recover the majority because of the mistakes of the former (board) president,” Bettencourt said. “All they can do is hold the seats they already have.”

The department has operated differently than any traditional school district since it was founded in 1889. The department’s function has been to provide support and resources to the 25 school districts that lie within Harris County’s borders, a large part of which comes from a purchasing co-op that helps districts buy supplies at lower prices.

It also offers educational programs, operating 15 federally funded Head Start early childhood programs, runs four specialty schools and provides adult education courses at 65 locations. Additionally, it employs special education therapists who travel around the county to help schools provide services to students with disabilities.

Its tax rate is minuscule, and the bulk of its budget comes from state and federal grants, as well as fees districts pay for specialized services.

In recent decades, the department has been the subject of frequent criticism of some state and local conservatives who call it an unnecessary bureaucracy that would better serve districts if it were dissolved and its assets were given to local schools.

Republicans who shared that belief gained control of the board after the 2018 midterm elections and were quick to exercise their new role. Former trustee Josh Flynn was named board president during his first meeting in January 2019. Minutes later, the board voted to scrap a contract with a lobbying firm that represented HCDE interests in Austin.

They voted the following month to change the composition of an ancillary board that issues bonds and oversees construction contracts.

They asked the board attorney to investigate the department’s Education Foundation, then put an item on two meeting agendas to replace the same attorney with a representative from Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain’s law firm, an ally of the Republican trustees. The board ultimately kept its original lawyer after the item to remove her was tabled.

Tempers flared between the new majority and those who supported the agency. Trustee Eric Dick, the sole Republican on the board who supported HCDE, frequently exchanged terse words with the new majority, especially Flynn and Wolfe. The tension came to a head after Dick reported that Wolfe had made sexual advances on a woman who had applied to become the board’s secretary, and allegedly attempted to blacklist her among Houston Republican groups after she turned down his advances.

After reviewing a third-party report on the allegations commissioned by the board, trustees voted to censure Wolfe in April 2019, and Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan launched an investigation into the allegations. Wolfe has denied the allegations, and the county attorney has yet to release any findings.

Ultimately, the board’s Republican majority was short-lived. Former trustee George Moore resigned after moving out of Harris County in May 2019, and the board later appointed Democrat Amy Hinojosa to replace him. Flynn resigned in December that same year after his eligibility to run for the Texas House was questioned due to his position on the board. The board appointed Democrat Andrea Duhon to take Flynn’s place, firmly shifting the board majority.

“I have to tell you, it seems like it’s working like a well-oiled machine,” Duhon said. “It’s been fabulous not having to worry about someone coming in and trying to tear it all apart.”

Sumners, Bettencourt and other Republicans have blamed Flynn for the shift in power. Though Republicans outnumbered Democrats for most of 2019, Dick sided with the Democrats amid an ongoing feud with the Republican trustees, resulting in a 3-3 deadlock that left the board unable to appoint Moore’s replacement. Moore was barred from voting.

In December, however, Flynn skipped a meeting where trustees were set to appoint his and Moore’s replacements. That allowed Dick and the two Democrats to appoint Hinojosa and Duhon.

“Thus, the coup was complete,” Sumners wrote in a blog post on the conservative site Big Jolly Times. “The Democrats were in complete control and the two Republicans … are left totally ineffective. And, the Republican defeat was totally self inflicted by the irresponsible self indulgent actions of its own board members.”

Democrats believe Harris County’s shift to the left in recent elections leaves them poised to capture the remaining at-large seats. Trustee Richard Cantu, a Democrat, was elected to the other at-large position with about 57 percent of the vote in 2018.

Republicans, however, are hoping the lack of straight-ticket voting will help them retain the at-large seats even if Democrats win races at the top of the ballot. Bob Wolfe, a former member of the Lone Star College System board of trustees, said he is not concerned about serving in the minority.

Wolfe also said he has yet to decide whether he agrees with his son that the board should be abolished.

“We're so far down the ballot, I'm not really actively campaigning,” Bob Wolfe said. “But if I get the job, I'd do the best job possible.”