State takeovers of struggling school districts have a very poor track record. Two education leaders in Houston call on state officials to support the Houston Independent School District, not to dissolve local control.
Ruth Kravetz is co-founder of Community Voices for Public Education and Zeph Capo is President of the Texas AFT. They speak out for democracy.
I have a stake in HISD. I attended public school there from kindergarten through high school graduation. The Houston public schools prepared me to enter a selective college. My mother, fresh off the boat in 1919, having fled war-torn Europe, enrolled in Houston public schools and learned to speak English. Her high school diploma was one of her proudest possessions.
They write:
The Texas Education Agency should heed evidence from around the country that state takeovers of schools harm students and communities. The public needs to know that the rules for assessing school performance, and rating them by letter grade, are capricious and biased, and are archetypal examples of grandfathering at their worst.
They give numerous examples of failed state takeovers. In Tennessee, Ohio, and elsewhere. They could have added Michigan, where state takeovers have been a disaster.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Unfortunately, the current mayor, Sylvester Turner, is a corporate Democrat that wants to emulate the “public-private partnership” of Los Angeles schools. The current governor and lieutenant governor are right wing conservatives that are eager to privatize the majority minority system. HB 1842 promotes enables the corporate takeover of public education even though there are only four schools in the so-called failing category. This law also allows the firing of the board of education and allows for hand picked appointed replacements. It is clear that the power structure has rigged the laws against public education. A second senate bill allows for a two year moratorium on sanctions. Houston parents must unite and fight against the hostile takeover of the schools which in city after city has been a failure of epic proportions. These impatient, greedy privatizers are trying to grab as many schools and as much real estate as they can before the public realizes what has happened.https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/education-news/2019/01/15/318005/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-a-potential-state-takeover-of-houston-schools/
Houston needs to organize and refuse to accept privatization or a takeover, which is generally a precedent to privatization. It should look at how the people of Puerto Rico and the parents of ROSLA in Los Angeles refused to accept the top down decision of the so-called decision makers. Sometimes people need to collectively unite against forces that seek to undermine democratic rights.
when the Democrats wonder where the now loudly rumbling divide sits, it feels as if it sits right there in those two words: CORPORATE DEMOCRAT
State takeovers is another weapon in the arsenal of the greedy, power-hungry, vampire, corporate charter school industry.
State takeovers were never meant to improve public school districts. They are meant to destroy them.
The Republican Texas House Speaker is the expected demographic. He’s in the news today for an alleged recording (he’s apologized for comments he may have made) in which he labeled two of the 26 Democratic female representatives, “awful ” and “vile”. Not surprisingly, he apparently had nothing to say about the 6 GOP female House Representatives (down from 19 in 2012). Attrition took care of them. The Texas House has 150 members, 80% male. So, while the Speaker disparaged men and women, finding two women to insult was disproportional.
Texas has the potential to vote blue in 2020. There have been many Republican retirements including Rep. Hurd, the lone black representative in the House. Latinos in Texas are angry at #45’s racist rhetoric which is inciting violence against the Latino community. If enough young Latinos show up to vote, it may be possible that Texas could get a Democratic representative in the House. https://www.vox.com/2019/8/5/20754826/texodus-house-republican-retirement-marchant-hurd-olsen
Texas used to vote for Democrats. Not just Dixiecrats. Think Ann Richards.
“Hispanic Catholics voted 67% Democratic in the 2016 Presidential election. White Catholics voted 37% Democratic in the election.” Pew Research
“Youth voter turnout increased in 2018 in all 34 states where data was available- in Georgia and Texas, it increased 20% and 25% respectively.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.