Texas announces state takeover of Houston schools, stirring anger
HOUSTON — Texas officials Wednesday announced a state takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student public school district, the eighth-largest in the country, acting on years of threats and angering Democrats who assailed the move as political.
The announcement, made by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s education commissioner, Mike Morath, amounts to one of the largest school takeovers ever in the country. It also deepens a high-stakes rift between Texas’ largest city, where Democrats wield control, and state Republican leaders, who have sought increased authority following election fumbles and COVID-19 restrictions.
In a letter to the Houston Independent School District, Morath said the Texas Education Agency will replace Superintendent Millard House II and the district’s elected board of trustees with a new superintendent and an appointed board of managers made of residents from within the district’s boundaries.
Morath said the board has failed to improve student outcomes while conducting “chaotic board meetings marred by infighting” and violating open meetings act and procurement laws. He accused the district of failing to provide proper special education services and of violating state and federal laws with its approach to supporting students with disabilities.
He cited the seven-year record of poor academic performance at one of the district’s roughly 50 high schools, Wheatley High, as well as at several other campuses.
Most of Houston’s school board members have been replaced since the state began making moves toward a takeover in 2019.
House became superintendent in 2021.
The Texas State Teachers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas condemned the takeover.
At a news conference in Austin, state Democratic leaders called for the Legislature to increase funding for education and raise teacher pay.
An annual Census Bureau survey of public school funding showed Texas spent $10,342 per pupil in the 2020 fiscal year, more than $3,000 less than the national average, according to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University in Houston.
Trump legal troubles: Porn actor Stormy Daniels met Wednesday with prosecutors who are investigating hush money paid to her on former President Donald Trump’s behalf, her lawyer said Wednesday.
The $130,000 payment was made in 2016, as Trump’s first presidential campaign was in its final weeks and Daniels was negotiating to go on television to air her claims of a sexual encounter with him a decade earlier.
Daniels met with and answered questions from Manhattan prosecutors and is willing to be a witness, her attorney, Clark Brewster, tweeted. The adult film actor tweeted her thanks to him for “helping me in our continuing fight for truth and justice.”
Fraud arrest: A business tycoon long sought by the government of China and known for cultivating ties to Trump administration figures including Steve Bannon was arrested Wednesday in New York on charges that he oversaw a $1 billion fraud conspiracy.
Guo Wengui, 54, was accused along with his financier and chief of staff of various crimes, including wire and securities fraud. He was charged in court papers under the name Ho Wan Kwok.
U.S. prosecutors said the indictment stemmed from a complex scheme in which Guo lied to hundreds of thousands of online followers in the United States and around the world before misappropriating hundreds of millions of dollars.
At an arraignment in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, Guo pleaded not guilty through his attorney.
Guo was arrested in his sprawling luxury apartment overlooking Central Park. Hours later, firefighters extinguished a smoky blaze on the same floor as Guo’s penthouse. It wasn’t immediately clear if the fire was in his home or related to his arrest.
Iran poisoning arrests: Iranian police said Wednesday that 110 suspects have been arrested in connection with the suspected poisoning of thousands of girls in schools across the country.
Students say they have been sickened by noxious fumes in incidents dating back to November that have mainly occurred in girls’ schools. Authorities say they are investigating, but there has been no word on who might be behind the incidents or what — if any — chemicals have been used.
Unlike neighboring Afghanistan, Iran has no history of religious extremists targeting women’s education.
Gen. Saeed Montazerolmehdi, the police spokesperson, announced the arrests in remarks carried by Iranian media. He also said police had confiscated thousands of stink bomb toys, indicating that some of the alleged attacks might have been copycat pranks.
A special prosecutor who doubles as a state legislator is stepping down from her role in the manslaughter case against actor Alec Baldwin in the death of a cinematographer on a New Mexico film set.
Baldwin’s legal team in February sought to disqualify special prosecutor and Republican state Rep. Andrea Reeb based on constitutional provisions that safeguard the separation of powers between distinct branches of government.
Reeb said in a statement Tuesday that she “will not allow questions about my serving as a legislator and prosecutor to cloud the real issue at hand.”
Baldwin and weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-reed have pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison and fines.
Film set shooting:
Turkey floods: Floods caused by torrential rains hit two Turkish provinces that were devastated by last month’s catastrophic earthquake, killing at least 14 people and increasing the misery for thousands who were left homeless, officials said Wednesday.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said rescue teams were still searching for five people reported missing after the flash floods turned streets in Adiyaman and Sanliurfa provinces into rivers, swept away cars, inundated homes and drenched campsites sheltering earthquake survivors.
At least 12 people were killed in Sanliurfa, including five Syrian nationals whose bodies were found inside a flooded basement apartment and two other people who died inside a van trapped at an underpass.
In Adiyaman, two people drowned after surging waters swept away a container home sheltering a family of earthquake survivors.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said more than a dozen divers were involved in the rescue efforts.