Texas announces reopening of Houston schools, sparking anger

FILE – People hold signs during a news conference, Friday, March 3, 2023, in Houston, to protest the Texas Education Agency’s plan to take over the city’s school district. Texas officials announced Wednesday, March 15, the state’s takeover of the nearly 200,000-student Houston Public School District, the eighth-largest in the nation, following years of threats and angering Democrats who called the move political. (AP Photo/Juan A. Lozano)

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas officials announced Wednesday the state’s takeover of the nearly 200,000-student Houston public school district, the eighth-largest in the nation, following years of threats and angering Democrats who called the move political.

The announcement, made by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s education commissioner Mike Morath, marks one of the largest school takeovers ever in the United States. It also drives a high-stakes wedge between Texas’ largest city, where Democrats hold control, and the state’s Republican leaders, who have sought to increase their authority after electoral setbacks and COVID-19 restrictions.

The takeover is the latest example of white Republican lawmakers seeking to take over minority-majority, Democratic-dominated cities. Those cities include St. Louis and Jackson, Mississippi, where the legislature is seeking to take over the water system and expand the role of state police and appointed judges.

In a letter to the Houston Independent School District, Morath said the Texas Education Agency would replace Superintendent Millard House II and the district’s elected board of trustees with a new superintendent and an appointed board of trustees made up of residents from the district’s boundaries.

Morath said the board failed to improve student outcomes while holding “chaotic, infighting meetings” and violating the Open Meetings Act and public procurement laws. He accused the district of failing to provide appropriate special education services and violating state and federal laws in its approach to supporting students with disabilities.

He cited seven years of poor academic performance at one of the district’s approximately 50 high schools, Wheatley High, as well as poor performance at several other campuses.

“The governing body of a school system is solely responsible for the outcomes of all students. While the current board has made progress, systemic issues within the Houston Independent School District continue to impact students in the district,” Morath wrote in his six-page letter.

Most of Houston’s school board members have been replaced since the state began taking control of schools in 2019. House became superintendent in 2021.

He and the current school board will remain in place until the new board of directors is elected, shortly after June 1. The new board of directors will be appointed for at least two years.

In a statement, the Chamber highlighted progress made across the district, saying the announcement “does not negate the gains we have made.”

He said his priority now will be to ensure “a smooth transition without disrupting our core mission of providing an exceptional educational experience for all students.”

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 on the Legislature to increase education funding and raise teacher salaries.

“We recognize that there have been poor outcomes in the past, primarily due to the severe underfunding of our public schools,” said state Rep. Armando Walle, who represents parts of north Houston.

An annual Census Bureau survey of public school funding showed that Texas spent $10,342 per student in fiscal year 2020, more than $3,000 less than the national average, according to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University in Houston.

The state was able to take control of the district thanks to a change in state law proposed by Houston Democratic Rep. Harold Dutton Jr. in 2015. In an op-ed published Monday in the Houston Chronicle, Dutton said he did not regret what he did.

“We hear voices of opposition, people who say that HISD should not have to face the consequences of allowing a campus to fail for more than five consecutive years. The concerns of these critics are unwarranted,” Dutton wrote.

In recent decades, schools in other major cities, including Philadelphia, New Orleans and Detroit, have been taken over by the state, which is generally seen as a last resort for low-performing schools and often draws a negative community response. Critics argue that state interventions have generally not led to major improvements.

Texas began taking control of the district following allegations of misconduct by school administrators, including improper influence over vendor contracts and chronically low academic performance at Wheatley High.

The district sued to block a takeover, but new education laws subsequently passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature and a January decision by the Texas Supreme Court cleared the way for the state takeover.

“All of us Texans have an obligation and should come together to reimagine HISD in a way that ensures we provide the highest quality education for these children,” Abbott said Wednesday.

Houston’s schools are not under the mayor’s control, unlike New York and Chicago, but as expectations of a takeover grew, the city’s Democratic leaders united in opposition.

Race is also an issue, because the vast majority of students in Houston schools are Hispanic or black. Domingo Morel, a professor of political science and public service at New York University, said the political and racial dynamics in the Houston case are similar to those in cases where states have intervened elsewhere.

“If we just focus on recovering school districts because they’re not performing, we’re going to have a lot more recoveries,” Morel said. “But that’s not what’s happening.”

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Weber reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.