Houston joins cities fighting potential takeovers

HOUSTON (AP) — In the four years that Houston schools have been threatened by one of the largest takeover bids ever in the United States, teacher Arnetta Murray says the district has come a long way.

As Houston prepares for a state decision on whether or not it will take control of public schools in Texas’ largest city, Murray believes the fight is about more than academic failure.

“I think we’re focused on changing the narrative and being different and saying, ‘Hey, why is Gov. (Greg) Abbott attacking Houston?’” said Murray, 57, who teaches special education in a middle school where most students are classified as economically disadvantaged. ” For what ? Is this silver ? Is this politics?’

Classrooms aren’t the only place where Houston officials and residents are scrambling to resist possible takeovers that the city’s Democratic leaders see as politically motivated in a state where Republicans control the Statehouse and governor’s office. Election failures and accusations that local leaders illegally cut spending on law enforcement are also triggering potential interventions by Republicans, who have lost ground around Houston over the past decade.

Issues of race are closely related to this, as Houston has a large black and Hispanic population.

Houston is the largest U.S. city where potential takeovers of local institutions have a major impact on minority communities, including St. Louis and Washington, DC. It is also an extension of a broader struggle in the United States against states exercising broader control over municipalities.

What’s different in Houston, local leaders say, is the broader effort to control how the fourth-largest U.S. city — home to more than 2 million people — runs theaters. class, elections and budgets.

Republicans reject political accusations, saying they have a duty to act.

“What you see is just specific struggles over, frankly, what is the best public policy,” said Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston, who is carrying a bill that would allow the state to take over local elections. office for a valid reason.

“Do you want the police to be defunded or not?” Do you want to have competent election administration or not? Do you or do you not want to have a non-corrupt school board in your largest district? That’s really what fighting is about,” he said.

Renée Cross, senior executive director of the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs, said it could be 10 to 20 years before tension eases between the state government led by the Republican Party and major Democratic-led Texas metropolitan areas, including Houston.

“Until the Legislature is a little more diverse in terms of partisanship, I think we’re going to continue to see these efforts,” Cross said.

It’s unclear when the state will make a decision on the Houston Independent School District, which, with nearly 200,000 students, is the eighth largest in the United States. Teachers and administrators have been on edge since Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a City Council meeting this month that a takeover could be imminent, citing conversations with Houston lawmakers.

The decision is up to the Texas Education Agency, which said in a statement that it is still determining the next steps that will “best support students, teachers, parents and the school community.” A spokesperson for Abbott, who appoints the state’s education commissioner, did not respond to a message seeking comment.

A Houston school buyout would be one of the largest ever in the country, said Beth Schueler, an assistant professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia.

The state began considering the move in 2019, following allegations of misconduct by school trustees, including improper influence over vendor contracts, and years of chronically poor academic performance. weak in one of its approximately 50 secondary schools. As of August 2016, the district has had three superintendents.

The district sued to block the intervention, but changes to state law in response to the lawsuit and a Texas Supreme Court ruling in January paved the way for the takeover.

When the district’s board voted Thursday to officially end their lawsuit, board member Elizabeth Santos said through tears, “It’s time for the community to come together and win by uniting our voices in the Legislature and in our neighborhood schools and at the ballot box.”

Local leaders acknowledge the district has had problems, but say a buyout now would ignore recent improvements, including reducing the number of low-rated schools from 50 to 10.

But some Houstonians still have concerns.

Nikki Keyser, a local community activist, said she doesn’t think the current superintendent, Millard House II, is right for the job, believing the interim superintendent he replaced was partly responsible for recent progress and should have been given the job.

“When you are held accountable for your behavior, this is what happens in our children’s district and the only people who suffer are our parents and our children,” said Keyser, executive director of the Simply HER movement, a nonprofit organization for-profit that helps provide food and housing to residents in need.

The power struggle that has received the most attention in the United States is taking place in Mississippi, where the predominantly white state legislature is pushing for an expanded role for state police and to the appointment of judges in the majority-black capital of Jackson.

Hispanics make up the largest demographic group in Harris County, home to Houston. It also has a large black population. When Republicans approved new voting restrictions in 2021 that banned expanded voting options implemented by Houston, Democrats called it an attack on minority voters.

Turner is finishing his final term as mayor, and the leading contenders in the officially nonpartisan election to succeed him are all Democrats.

He attended a recent rally for the district, where some said recent clashes with the state were at least partly due to partisanship.

“We’re dealing with people who are operating at extremes and, therefore, they believe they can come in and take over the largest school district in the state of Texas…and people will agree with that. That ?” Turner told the Associated Press. “No I do not agree.”

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Weber reported from Austin, Texas.