The following statement was released on New Year’s Day by Community Voices for Public Education, a coalition of parents and students in Houston. As their statement demonstrates, the state takeover is a fraud intended to strip the school district of its elected school board and to replace it with a hand-picked governing board selected by a non-educator who wants to privatize public education.
It is New Years’ Day and public education is on our minds.
Will you make a commitment to fight the immoral, unAmerican and racist takeover of HISD? Call your elected officials and then bring five friends with you to the January 9 rally opposing this takeover.
Recently, the Houston Chronicle editorial board used misleading facts and misrepresentation to misinform its readers. The Chronicle seems mission-driven to legitimize the state takeover of HISD no matter the cost to its journalistic integrity or actual facts.
When they do this over three editorials, it is no longer an accident; it is propaganda.
Here are some examples from the most recent editorials.
HISD at a crossroads: Looming State Takeover: The editorial compared HISD’s 81% graduation rate to Dallas’ 88% and Fort Worth’s 87% leaving the reader with the impression that they were better school districts. The reality is Fort Worth has a TEA 2019 Accountability Rating of “C”(79) and only 53% of their graduates are college, career or military ready versus HISD’s “B”(88) and 63% graduate readiness. Dallas ISD has a “B” (86) rating and only 57% of their graduates are college, career or military ready. By the TEA’s own standards HISD is the better district. How did the Houston Chronicle and Mr. Morath manage to come to a completely different conclusion? Didn’t any of them bother to check the Texas Schools website? https://txschools.gov
HISD must learn from others and our own past: This editorial starts with the statistic of 56% of HISD students not meeting grade level expectations as measured by the STAAR test but it never mentions that Dallas ISD has the exact same STAAR performance rating as HISD. Once again, the Chronicle incorrectly leaves readers with the impression that Dallas is a better school district. (Source https://txschools.gov)
HISD needs improvement, but where to start? How could the Chron fail to mention the Superintendent? The person who actually runs the district. The person who hires and places the all important principals. The person who would have to actually implement the LBB recommendations. This piece misleads the reader into thinking the Board of Trustees run the district. They don’t! They are a governing body elected by us and accountable to us. If the state takeover proceeds, our democratically elected school board members, four just elected, will be replaced with a board of managers serving at the pleasure of the governor and the TEA.
A call to all Houstonians to participate: In its final editorial in the series, the Chronicle asks us to put blind faith in TEA Commissioner Mike Morath as our unelected torchbearer. His educational experience is one term as Dallas ISD Trustee in which he unsuccessfully tried to turn Dallas ISD into a “home rule” giant charter using the same tactics he is now employing in Houston ISD. Truly, his resume is thinner than most substitute teachers.
Throughout the series, the Houston Chronicle disregards overwhelming evidence that state takeovers harm students and communities. They also turn a blind eye to the fact that takeovers have been used disproportionately against school districts of color. Furthermore, they have ignored a preponderance of evidence that high stakes testing is a flawed method for evaluating students, teachers and schools.
And the series pays the barest lip service to poverty/inequity and the effect on children and families. When seven children share one mattress, they do not need a state takeover to do better in school; they need six more mattresses.
If the Editorial Board wanted to facilitate meaningful change in HISD, their editorials should have been grounded in complete facts and they should have used data to inform, not obfuscate. There is no such thing as problem solving through propaganda.
Community Voices for Public Education
http://www.houstoncvpe.org/
This group seems to be organized by some savvy advocates for strong public schools. The mission statement is excellent and positive. They have two events scheduled for January, and I hope they have some Spanish speakers that can try to get Latino parents involved in the protests. I hope they have some people that can do outreach to some of the churches, especially important for reaching the second language parents.
I filled out their survey. While I cannot vote in Houston, I do have an interest there through the property I own. I am a tax payer in the city. I am concerned that these right wing politicians will attempt the seizure of more districts in the state like the one my grandson attends, if they takeover Houston.
I think a large part of the motive for state-takeovers that don’t result in any significant improvements in education is to reduce black and Latino political power. After Katrina in New Orleans, the white establishment began abolishing and consolidating elected offices to reduce the opportunities for minority hiring and patronage, all in the name of good government. White-controlled charters hired white support workers or new immigrants to the city with no sense of community. Republicans want to deprive the black and brown middle class of government jobs that were the traditional back bone of electoral organizations.
BINGO. It is separate and unequal treatment in order to place mostly black and brown students in separate and unequal schools where the students are monetized in order to create revenue streams for the already wealthy. My question is why isn’t this illegal?
In NYC, Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein broke up the feeder patterns that defined communities. One of their highest level directors told me that their goal was to make sure that there would never be a political base of support to fight their constant reorganizations. If there are 20 students living in the same apartment building and they are enrolled in 12-15 different schools, there is no way to organize them to protest. Every high school and every middle school is a school of choice. Students are traveling 45 minutes or an hour or more to schools far from home. It is a system of choice that is so complex that only the most sophisticated parents understand it.
Choice in New Orleans meant students living in Mississippi Gulf Coast summer homes got into selective admission New Orleans charters. Maybe Bloomberg will become president and make school choice universally interstate,
As Diane points out in her comparison between HISD and Dallas, evidence and logic no longer apply. Those at the top impose their agenda and the media dances to their tune. The fate of all Houston’s public school students depends on evil politics!
YES. And yes again…