HOUSTON – Houston Independent School District Superintendent Millard House II gave the State of Schools address Friday.
The address was made after Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner spoke on rumors in Wednesday’s city council meeting about the Texas Education Agency planning to take over the district as early as next week, saying the idea was “totally alarming.”
“While we are proud of the road that we traveled this far, there’s still much work left to do and much work left to focus on,” Millard said while addressing several district staff members and officials. “Uncertainty looms as it relates to potential intervention from TEA, and I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know what the future will bring but here’s what I do know. Together, we have proven that public education can be transformative given the right supports, students are more capable of making the academic gains that we know they deserve to make.”
Millard continued, saying, “our students need you. They need all of you to be a critical partner over the road ahead for this school district.”
In a statement released Saturday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo says the potential takeover is “outrageous at best and a thinly veiled threat to democracy at worst.”
“From election denial to serious proposals to take over elections in our county, attempts to limit our budget, and now this attempt to take over the eighth largest school district in the nation, the state is taking politics too far and working to limit democracy, and the established rights of our citizens,” Hidalgo said.
In March 2022, House outlined those necessities to help improve the district in a strategic five-year plan. He also described the district’s relationship with TEA as positive – including its reaction to his five-year plan. In January, the Texas Supreme Court cleared the way for the state to potentially take control of HISD, which state education officials say has been plagued with various issues, according to the Texas Tribune.
Houston leaders, parents react to possibility of TEA taking over HISD
The Texas Education Agency released the following statement to KPRC 2:
“TEA continues to review the Supreme Court’s decision in order to determine next steps that best support the students, teachers, parents, and school community of the Houston Independent School District.”
Read Judge Hidalgo’s full statement:
“The Texas Education Agency’s rumored plan to take over HISD is outrageous at best and a thinly-veiled threat to democracy at worst. School boards are one of the purest expressions of American democracy. From election denial to serious proposals to take over elections in our county, attempts to limit our budget, and now this attempt to take over the eighth largest school district in the nation, the state is taking politics too far and working to limit democracy, and the established rights of our citizens.
Most research shows that takeovers do not generate academic benefits. But that’s not what this is about. This is about democracy. The issues that TEA had with HISD in 2019 no longer apply in 2023. HISD is a school district that is moving upward. Wheatley High School is no longer failing, the school board TEA found an issue with no longer exists, and the Superintendent is widely respected. The only constant is that teachers continue to overwhelmingly oppose a takeover.
I urge the state to rethink their disastrous plan to upend our schools and stop this latest show of political theater.”
The Texas Tribune contributed to this story.
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