As lawmakers fuel the culture war with education in the crosshairs, one issue that has come to the forefront—in parallel with a tense series of legislative sessions in 2023—is the seizure of local control via a takeover by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

TEA’s latest takeover target is the largest school district in the state and the eighth largest in the U.S. In March 2023, TEA announced it would take over Houston ISD, following years of litigation between the district and agency.

The saga began back in 2019 when TEA announced a plan to take over HISD—by replacing its elected school board with a TEA appointed board—due to “the repeated low academic performance of Wheatley High School,” just one campus among over 270 in a district, which serves nearly 200,000 Houston schoolchildren. A court injunction held off this action, and in that time frame, many of the board members serving in 2019 stepped off the board and Wheatley’s rating improved, but TEA pressed forward with the plan.

How is it possible for one school’s performance to determine the fate of an entire district? House Bill (HB) 1842, which was signed into law in 2015, allows for the commissioner of education to take over a district if it has a single campus that has failed to meet state accountability ratings for two consecutive years; the alternative is to close the underperforming campus.

Schools and districts were not rated in 2019-20 or 2020-21 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although HISD received an overall accountability rating of B from TEA in 2019 and 2022, the highest aggregate rating the district could receive under current law, Mike Morath, Texas’ education commissioner, was able to invoke HB 1842 in spite of the district’s overall rating.

Morath’s letter notifying HISD of the TEA takeover points not only to academic performance issues but also to misconduct by previous trustees—including alleged violations of the Open Meetings Act and Texas procurement law. However, Morath acknowledged the board’s progress since the initial attempt to take over. Ultimately, his reasoning called out “prior academic performance issues,” despite Wheatley’s improvement from 2019 to 2022 from an F to a C rating.

In June, Superintendent Millard House II was replaced by Mike Miles, and the entire locally elected school board was ousted and replaced with appointed members. Miles previously served as Dallas ISD’s superintendent for three years, as well as superintendent of two school districts in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also founded Third Future Schools, a charter network with campuses in Colorado, Texas, and Louisiana.

Upon his appointment as superintendent, Miles rolled out his New Education System (NES), which promises to “provide resources and support to dramatically improve outcomes” for students in about 30 priority schools across HISD. The NES also promises higher salaries, more support for teachers, and an innovative staffing model, according to HISD; however, confusion and concern arose after some educators were offered pay raises for the 2023-24 school year, only to be sent revised, lower offers later. HISD employees have spoken out to the media, often anonymously, about what they call a “bait-and-switch.” For some educators, notifications of pay cuts came after the district’s resignation deadline.

Protests against the takeover have followed, and after feeling unheard and shut down in board meetings and town halls, community members have taken to social media, city streets, and even sporting events to voice their anger.

Perhaps the most glaring issue of the takeover—aside from the concern for pay cuts, layoffs, reassignments, library closures, and loss of essential services—is the way TEA was able to seize control of a democratically elected school board in spite of the district’s overall favorable accountability ratings.

ATPE Executive Director Shannon Holmes told ABC13 in June: “Most notably, we don’t have any locally elected school board members anymore, so I am not sure where local accountability comes into place for voters.”

Houston ATPE President Mike Holton echoes this sentiment. He says that even months into the takeover, there is little buy-in. In speaking with fellow Houston ATPE members, Holton predicts a significant fallout that will only be seen in the coming months: “I think the real attrition rates will tell the tale. HISD is telling them to embrace the NES or be reassigned. Some are just happy to have jobs, but a lot of teachers—even those who have been around for 20-25 years—are just waiting for their year of service to come up so they can retire or move on.”

A Brief Overview of TEA Intervention

Although Houston ISD is not the first district TEA has taken over, it has made national headlines and become part of a bigger conversation. Previous takeovers had often been triggered by allegations of misconduct, including cheating and financial malfeasance.

North Forest ISD in northeast Houston received a TEA accreditation status of “Not Accredited-Revoked” for the 2011-12 academic year. Robert Scott, the TEA commissioner at the time, cited long-standing “performance issues and operational concerns for decades.” The district was annexed by Houston ISD in July 2012.

El Paso ISD, with an enrollment of approximately 50,000, was previously the largest district to be taken over by TEA. EPISD faced a cheating scandal involving the manipulation of standardized test scores, after which TEA took over in 2012 and appointed a board of managers to address the district’s academic and administrative issues. At the time, the takeover called into question ways in which the pressures of the state standardized testing system were impacting public education. The agency returned local control to the district six years later when it met state standards.

TEA can also issue less severe interventions—including monitoring and conservatorships. Austin ISD is one example of the former; AISD and TEA agreed in September 2023 to have two monitors oversee and report to TEA the district’s handling of special education services.

As of this writing, 15 districts other than HISD have been taken over by TEA. Five districts settled in court or did not proceed with a board of managers, four districts were closed and absorbed by neighboring districts, four had local control restored after meeting state standards, and two are still under TEA control.

How Much Control Is Too Much?

As the future of public education becomes more dire in the face of multi-pronged attacks—in the form of privatization, book bans, and overall seizure of local control—state takeover of a district with HISD’s circumstances sets a dangerous precedent.

The circumstances surrounding the HISD takeover—in a nutshell, targeting a presently improving campus for its previous record—may raise the question of whether it’s really about the kids. Regardless, a disparity in treatment of public vs. charter schools deserves a closer look.

During his tenure, Morath has extended grace on at least 17 occasions to underperforming charter networks looking to expand. In October, The Texas Tribune pointed out this unequal application of authority. When asked about the inconsistency, TEA issued a statement saying that when charter school expansions require a waiver for not meeting state standards, “the agency conducts a thorough review that includes assessing the ‘entire portfolio of campuses’”—a privilege not afforded to Houston ISD.

Another sign that indicates an abuse and overreach of state power is TEA’s treatment of accountability ratings, making acceptable performance unattainable for some districts and campuses. In August 2023, seven school districts filed suit against TEA, stating Morath is “retroactively changing the rules in a way that will arbitrarily lower performance ratings for many school districts and campuses even though their performance improved [under the rubric established at the time students were tested].” In some cases, the suit claims, an A rating could fall to a D rating under the new standards.

Considering Wheatley High School had improved—and it only takes one campus falling short to trigger TEA intervention—district officials have become increasingly fearful of their fates, and the number of plaintiffs in the aforementioned suit has ballooned to 100 since the lawsuit was originally filed.

Even if a district or campus were to achieve acceptable scores under the revised system, the lawsuit illustrates the potential snowball effect of lower performance ratings, including declines in enrollment and a subsequent decrease in school funding, which is tied to average daily attendance.

This attempt to artificially manufacture and then dismantle “failing” school systems suspiciously runs parallel to an ongoing fight to get vouchers passed in Texas. Multiple special sessions have been called following this year’s legislative session, and Gov. Greg Abbott has repeatedly vowed to pass a voucher bill despite Democrats’ and rural Republicans’ pushback.

The governor’s vocal disdain toward public education is nothing new, and his feelings about Houston ISD have been evident for at least the past four years. One of his tweets from January 2019 reads: “What a joke. HISD leadership is a disaster. Their self-centered ineptitude has failed the children they are supposed to educate ...”

Eroding confidence in the public schools that educate over 5.5 million schoolchildren and moving the goalposts for maintaining compliance with state standards is a convenient avenue for taking over additional districts across the state, usurping the authority of democratically elected school boards and pointing to a “failed” public education system as justification for vouchers and privatization.