HISD tweet
Abbott picked the wrong forum.
You’d think Gov. Greg Abbott would know by now that governing by tweet like President Donald Trump does isn’t a good idea. Yet there he was Thursday using Twitter to call for a state takeover of Houston public schools without any hint of how that would make anything better.
“What a joke,” Abbott tweeted in response to an op-ed published in the Chronicle that argued against state intervention in Houston’s troubled school district. “HISD leadership is a disaster. Their selfcentered ineptitude has failed the children they are supposed to educate. If ever there was a school board that needs to be taken over and reformed it’s HISD. Their students & parents deserve change.”
Abbott’s right about the need for change. We share his concern over board members and some administrators who have continually failed to improve schools on the state’s bad list. But parents and students want to know what remedy the governor has in mind. If he and his appointee, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, are going to put a state-appointed board in charge of Houston’s schools, they need to explain a few things, including how HISD’s community connection would be maintained.
While he’s at it, the governor should explain why Houston should take his advice when he hasn’t managed to lead the Legislature in its own education crisis: failure to adequately fund public schools.
Current law allows the Texas Education Agency to assume operation of any district with even a single school given five straight “improvement required” ratings or close the failing school. Some critics say the 2015 law is a ruse to privatize public schools. TEA officials, led by Morath, have tried to calm fears and win community trust. Abbott’s impulsive Twitter insults feed the fear.
Nationally, there is little evidence that state takeovers really work. A 50state study by Rutgers University researchers concluded that state takeovers yield “more gains in central office activities than in classroom instructional practices.” State takeovers have occurred in Texas, but not in a large urban district like Houston, and not generally for student performance. State intervention in El Paso was prompted by cheating; in Beaumont, by fiscal mismanagement.
Still, the clock is running out for HISD. Highland Heights Elementary, Henry Middle and Kashmere and Wheatley High Schools could receive a fifth consecutive failing grade in August, triggering a takeover or their closure. HISD trustees recently shot down the idea of any outside partnership, such as the one Mayor Sylvester Turner supported, to avoid a state takeover.
Many have lost faith in HISD’s volatile board, known for raucous meetings and juvenile squabbles. Abbott isn’t inspiring much more confidence with his knee-jerk tweet. The governor should either weigh in constructively, or leave it to his education commissioner.