The state takeover of the Houston Independent School Board involved firing the elected school board, replacing them with a state-picked board, and hiring a new superintendent who was never a teacher but is a military man, a Broadie, and a failure as Dallas superintendent.
The new school board held its first meeting and set up only 35 seats for the public. The room holds 310 people. Everyone else was shunted to a room where they could watch the meeting on a screen. One man who registered to speak was handcuffed when he insisted on entering the room where the board was neeting.
The board unanimously agreed that superintendent Mije Miles should be allowed to serve even though his state license had lapsed in 2018.
This meeting exemplified the state’s contempt for public schools, and its complete indifference to the public, which has a stake in public schools. The public schools belong to the public, not to Republican politicians in Austin.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
SICKENING!
Texas is on a fascist roll:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/texas-gop-kills-local-democracy-greg-abbott-hb2127
Republicans Just Annihilated Local Democracy in Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott has signed the so-called “Death Star” bill that strips the state’s municipalities of their power to strengthen labor rights, environmental protections, and more.
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Abbott doesn’t want any blue urban district to be more liberal than the state, which he controls.
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Many of the RED states are now ruled by fascists who are not hiding their fascism.
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This is, awful, ad the Republicans are, placing their, supporters, into the I.S.D.s, which make these, school districts, no longer, “independent” anymore, and, once they, “inflitrated” into the “systems”, they will be able to control, what those kids from K-12 learn, in the public, schools, that way, these next generations of voters would be, easier for the political party to, manipulate, snd to, control.
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According to the article, Miles intends to immediately cut $106 million and use the money to implement a system that fires everyone and privatizes schools with low test scores. He also intends to replace magnet school teachers with cheap temp labor from outside contractors. What’s not to enrage?
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LeftCoastTeacher You are talking as if schools are not factories. CBK
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And the article mentions that some of the schools are “A rated.” I wonder what the ethnic composition of the schools taken over us. Bet we can guess.
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His “Dyad” idea is to fire all the teachers of elective subjects and replace them with volunteers.
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The meeting exemplified the ongoing,
state’s contempt for the public.
The unelected-appointed power, of
the state, has always trumped the
electorate.
From testing to credentialing,
from wars to trade agreements,
on and on, the unelected call
the shots.
Blowing the democracy dog whistle,
has yet to undermine the sacred
cows of the unelected bureaucrat
club.
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What Abbott and his cronies are doing to Houston’s public schools is obscene, but it is similar in many ways to how citizens and protesters in Newark, Chicago and Philly were excluded from meetings about the future of their schools. All attempts to freeze out the public are wrong when the topic is public education, and taxpayers are paying the bill. Politicians limit access to meetings when they do not want to confront protests and resistance. They would rather impose than lead. Bob Woodward once made a memorable statement, “Democracy dies in darkness.” It’s true today as it was back in Watergate.
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This is an example of when teachers and smart administrators start resigning and walking out the door.
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Smart administrators???
Haven’t seen more than a few in the last three decades or so.
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