Houston area officials call for end to Texas Education Agency takeover of Houston ISD – Houston Public Media

Speaking from the marches of the Houston chapter of the NAACP in the Third Ward Thursday morning, large numbers of people demanded an end to the occupation of the Houston Independent School District by the Texas Education Agency and its appointed superintendent F .Mike Miles.

Speakers included NAACP Chapter President James Dixon, Congressman Al Green, newly elected State Senator Molly Cook, Houston Federation of Teachers President Jacqueline Anderson and Johnny Mata of the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice. All denounced the state takeover of HISD and the unelected installation of Mike Miles.

Each commenter filed their own complaint against Miles. From award-winning principals and teachers to the closure of school libraries and subsequent layoffs of librarians and custodians, a litany of allegations of chaos and fallout from Miles’ actions. Everyone focused on Miles’ latest project: a $5 billion bond issue for the district.

Congressman Green has called for an independent federal investigation into the takeover of HISD by Mike Miles and the Texas Education Agency. He said the funneling of Texas education money to two voucher-funded charter schools in Colorado warrants an investigation. Miles founded Third Future Schools and served as a paid consultant for the charter school system last year.

“This is a probable enough reason in the court of public opinion that I am seeking an opportunity to have the Department of Justice and the Department of Education investigate this matter and find out what is happening to our tax dollars,” Green proclaimed.

As HISD struggles to close a $450 million deficit by reducing enrollment and closing education and support programs, Green says Third Future Schools of Texas, a charter school network, has sent funding ‘money to its cash-strapped Colorado schools from a general fund. which includes Texas money.

Green is furious at the idea of ​​Texas money being shipped out of state to help two struggling charter schools in Colorado, which were founded and run by Miles until he was hired by Governor Greg Abbott to lead HISD. Green says this takeover is just another way Abbott is trying to force school vouchers on the public:

“There have been efforts to validate our schools and our school systems. We’ve resisted that; the courts have resisted that,” Green said. “But the governor of the state of Texas persists in this course. If we allow the voucher system to succeed, we will lose the public school system that has benefited this society.”

Green cited history, telling the crowd that vouchers were created in 1956 following the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman proposed defunding public education and giving parents money in the form of vouchers to send their children to charter schools, in order to maintain school segregation.

In conclusion, each speaker offered a slogan that served as a rallying cry repeated by the enthusiastic crowd gathered to discuss and support the HISD independence movement.

Green’s words during his time at the podium certainly set the stage for the press event: “Currently we have a government of, by and for the governor. So, Governor, you have made your choice. We will make our choice. You are not going to be governor forever and we will watch over how you treat Harris County, Houston, Texas in the future.