My Conversation about the State Takeover of Houston Public Schools on KPFT-Pacifica

I was invited by KPFT, a Pacifica station in Houston, to discuss the state takeover of the Houston Independent School District.

This is a better link.

The host of the show is Paul Castro, who has taught in HISD and in an open enrollment charter school.

It was a good exchange. We talked about The state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles, about charter schools, and about Governor Abbott’s determination to get a voucher bill passed by the next legislature. I explained what a voucher program would mean and what has been learned from the experience of other states.

You have to search the website to find the program. It aired April 26 at 9 am.

“Amplified Houston” Friday

Host:Paul Castro

Guest:Diane Ravitch

Topic

Public school reform and HISD Takeover

Amplified Houston for Fri., April 26, 2024, focuses on public school reform and the HISD takeover. Dr Diane Ravitch, Founder and President of the Network for Public Education (NPE) will guest. NPE is the single largest organization of parents and teachers and other citizens working to stop the privatization of public education and the misuse of standardized testing.Diane Ravitch’s Blog is dianeravitch.net. Her two most recent books are EdSpeak and DoubleTalk:A Glossary to Decipher Hypocrisy and Save Public Schooling and The Death and Life of the Great American School System.

Friday, April 26, 2024 9:00 am30:07

Yvonne says:

April 29, 2024 at 11:13 am

Go Diane! 👍🏽

Ron says:

April 30, 2024 at 8:18 pm

A very interesting and helpful conversation. Thanks for this and all that you’ve been doing!

retired teacher says:

April 29, 2024 at 11:56 am

You masterfully controlled the interview and got many important talking points out to the public. It is important for people to understand how wasteful and expensive vouchers would be for Texas or any other state.

BTW, if so many students in Texas were failing and years behind as claimed by the host, why has the HISD received an overall B rating from the state? Calling the state takeover “stupid” is accurate. If some parents are happy with the pacing of instruction, they are likely the parents of middle class students in more affluent schools where libraries remain open and students are less likely to be treated like prison inmates. As far as a lack of complaints from Latino parents are concerned, as someone that worked closely with Latino parents for many years, I know Latino parents are very stoic and rarely complain or draw attention to themselves. They are generally grateful for just being in this country. If you want to engage them, the school has to reach out to them. Otherwise, they will remain silent partners in most cases, unless something outrageous like Uvalde, TX, happens.