HISD takeover looms
Community must ask hard questions of TEA.
In an ideal world, there would be no need to shutter a school or disempower a democratically elected school board. There would be adults who did their jobs and put obligations to students and voters above any petty grievance or political advantage. There would be better resources to boost chronically struggling campuses.
But then, nothing about the problems confronting Texas’ largest school district is ideal. Neither are the solutions.
Houston ISD is facing imminent state intervention after one of the district’s long-struggling schools, Phillis Wheatley High, marked its seventh consecutive failing grade in state accountability ratings. That triggers a 2015 Texas law giving Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath only two options: close the school or appoint a board of managers to replace the elected nine-member HISD board of trustees.
If the remedy sounds severe, that’s because it is. But condemning the law and bemoaning the loss of local control won’t change reality. HISD trustees have failed not only the students at Wheatley. They have refused to right the ship and provide the leadership needed to oversee the education of 209,000 students. They have squandered opportunities for a different outcome. And now they must face the consequences prescribed by law.
The district has dangled perilously close to state intervention for years, with some campuses repeatedly failing to meet academic standards as the current board, beset by in-fighting, bickering and embarrassingly unprofessional behavior, has flailed in dysfunction.
HISD has not had a permanent superintendent since the abrupt departure of Richard Carranza in March 2018. An ill-conceived attempt to oust interim leader Grenita Lathan and replace her with former superintendent Abelardo Saavedra in October was rescinded following public backlash.
The HISD board passed up a chance in December to avoid state sanctions when members refused to consider ceding control of troubled campuses to outside organizations, a move that could also have brought those schools an additional $1,800 per student.
“We’ve given them every opportunity to be successful, and they continue to choose not to,” said state Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Humble, who chairs the Texas House’s Committee on Public Education.
Then there’s the state investigation, which found some HISD board members allegedly violated the Texas Open Meetings Act, rules on vendor contracts and limits on governance authority. In their report, Texas Education Agency investigators recommended a state-appointed board replace HISD’s elected trustees.
How can children be expected to thrive when board members are too busy looking after their own self interests to put the needs of students first?
How can a 280-campus school district run smoothly when its elected representatives have created a culture of toxicity, identity politics and corruption?
Closing a campus, particularly one as iconic as the 92-year-old Wheatley, a historic Fifth Ward institution once known as one of the largest black high schools in the country, would rip apart the fabric of a community while doing nothing to address the larger systemic issues plaguing the district.
It’s true that wresting control of an elected board of trustees negates the will of constituents and doesn’t take into account HISD successes, such as the 80 percent of district schools that earned grades of A, B or C. That includes the dramatic, hard-earned progress at Kashmere High, which met standard for the first time in 11 years.
No one should ignore the troubling fact that state takeovers in other states, and state-appointed boards in this one, have garnered mixed results at best. Five years after the Beaumont school board was replaced, the district’s finances were in better shape, but academic achievement had barely budged, the Chronicle’s education reporter Jacob Carpenter reported.
But here’s another troubling fact: Every day that passes without improvement for Houston students leaves some further behind, putting any chance of reaching their full potential further out of reach.
Our children deserve better.
At this point, the best option available under the law is a state-appointed board of managers. In the very likely event that Morath, the TEA commissioner, takes that route, he should do so with the utmost consideration of all that’s at stake. That includes students’ futures, of course, but also the public’s trust, and the elements of the current HISD ecosystem that are actually working.
Intervention must be undertaken with respect and careful attention to community concerns. New board members must reflect the district’s diversity and its values. They must understand the communities they serve as well as grasp the importance of inclusion and best practices in their governance. There must be a clear plan for implementation, for measuring success — and a defined exit strategy.
Parents, educators, students and taxpayers, therefore, must step up to ask hard questions and demand that the state provide honest answers. How will members be chosen? What criteria will be used to ensure that state appointees prioritize the needs of HISD students? Will there be more financial resources to help schools improve? Will a strong ethics policy be in place and enforced?
Above all, the TEA must provide transparency. Parents need to be confident that their children’s welfare is at the center of every decision, every discussion. Houston is done accepting any less.