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--:-- Noelle King: Welcome to Today Explained. I'm Noelle King.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: I'm Dominic Anthony Walsh. I cover education and culture for Houston Public Media, which is Houston's NPR station. It's Today Explained.
--:-- Noelle King: We recently started airing on KUHF Houston Public Media, which is how we came across this story that Dominic's been covering.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: We are breaking into programming at this hour to tell you that the Texas Education Agency will be taking over the Houston Independent School District. That decision was just handed down from the state, it will have a major impact on more than 200,000 students.
--:-- Noelle King: Houston ISD had an elected school board. They had hired a superintendent. But in March, the Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education in Texas, announced that it was going to take over the Houston Independent School District, which, by the way, is the largest in the state.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Failure is not an option. We want to make sure that we have provided the best leadership environment possible for Houston ISD. And the way they do that is they appoint a board of managers, and that board of managers assumes the role of the school board.
--:-- Noelle King: Over the years, the HISD elected board has been accused of misconduct. So it's not without its critics. But it is worth noting that in the time between that alleged misconduct and now, all but two of the board members have left office and new board members have been elected. In addition, the superintendent that the elected school board had hired is also being replaced with a state-appointed leader.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Our schools should be run by our locally elected school board. As far as I'm concerned, this is a hostile takeover.
--:-- Noelle King: How was Texas able to do this? You've got elected leaders. The state says, we don't want these guys. We want our guys. Why is that legal?
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Yeah. So in Texas, it's been legal for a while for school boards to be replaced in cases of, you know, financial malfeasance, fraud, things like that. But in 2015, the state legislature in Texas passed a law that added another criteria for these types of takeovers. And it's actually more related to academic performance based on standardized tests, student outcomes after graduation.
--:-- Noelle King: So what that 2015 state law said was if one campus, one single school, an entire district fails to meet state standards for a certain number of years, the Texas Education agency has a few options. They can close the campus, they can order alternative management, or they can do what they're doing now, appoint a board of managers to intervene at the district level.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: So here in Houston, you know, we're talking about more than 270 schools in this district. And one of those not meeting state standards for long enough is grounds for the Texas Education Agency to come in and take over the entire district.
--:-- Noelle King: Well, let's talk about how many schools were failing? You said there are 200 how many? More than 270.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: It's fluctuated a little bit over the past few years, but I think the last number I've seen is 276 for this year. 276.
--:-- Noelle King: And how many of those schools were failing? In 2019, prior to the takeover, more than 40 schools failed to meet state standards.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: But there's one in particular that triggers that takeover law, Wheatley High School. It's in a low-income area of Houston known as the Fifth Ward, a historically black community.
--:-- Noelle King: It was hit really hard by Harvey, which was really tough for a lot of the students there. It was destitute. Everyone was pretty much hopeless, especially when we started coming back.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Most people didn't even have a home to go home to. Most people were sleeping in their car. People couldn't really advance the way they could because they were thinking about home problems.
--:-- Noelle King: I've chatted with students who knew people who died in Harvey who were homeless after Harvey, living in their cars. People, families died. I know a guy whose grandmother drowned that summer.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: And so I feel like for them to target and put a pin on that very year, it sucks because nobody was at their best.
--:-- Noelle King: So under the 2015 state law, it just takes one school to fail to meet state standards for five consecutive years. Wheatley is that school.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Wheatley High School had failed to meet state standards even before 2015. They missed a lot of chances to make a difference. And at least I believe that they out of time at this point. And I believe a board of governors is almost virtually going to happen.
--:-- Noelle King: So we get to 2019. The law is officially triggered. The state announces it's going to take over the district. Lawsuit happens. The 22-page lawsuit filed in Austin claims the TEA's actions are nothing more than retaliation against people of color and their leaders for disagreeing with the TEA and Governor Abbott on education policy.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: And we get to this year, more than three years after the TEA initially said it was going to take over the district and the Supreme Court of Texas clears the way. And by March, they have announced that despite improvements over those years, they're still going to move ahead with the takeover.
--:-- Noelle King: Between 2019 and 2023, the school district was attempting to not be taken over by the state. And I am wondering what happened to failing schools in the district in the meantime. Did administrators work so that 40 schools were no longer failing? Like, did things actually get better in the time that the independent school district, that the Houston school district held the state off?
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Yes. More than three quarters of the schools that failed to meet state standards back in 2019, when the state first tried to take over the district, have since passed state standards.
--:-- Noelle King: So there's still a few schools that have fallen short in the past couple of school years. We should note post-COVID, right? So post a big disruption.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: But yes, there has been progress. And in the state's eyes, it's not enough. In the state's eyes, it's not enough.
--:-- Noelle King: And so they bring in this new board and this new superintendent. Tell me about him. Where does he come from?
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Mike Miles was superintendent in Dallas ISD. Our main job is to instruct the kids. That's what we do and provide great quality instruction. So we're going to do that and we won't allow a student to disrupt that learning process.
--:-- Noelle King: When he was there, he implemented some controversial reforms, including performance-based pay for teachers. So teachers get paid based on how well their students do on tests, for example.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Since then, he was in Colorado. He founded and ran a charter school network called Third Future Schools, a multi-state network. They have campuses in Colorado and in Texas.
--:-- Noelle King: He moved directly from Third Future Schools into Houston ISD last week. And already some of his comments have, you know, they've offended teachers, to be frank.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: We have not been able to close the achievement gap. We have low proficiency. You really think 97% of all teachers in America are proficient? I don't think so.
--:-- Noelle King: And of course, a lot of public education advocates say that's entirely unfair. And like if we back up and look at the bigger picture of the takeover, it's justified by schools failing to meet state standards, right?
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: In Texas, we have this A through F rating system. And what Miles is saying about the education system and the way the state measures education in Texas, folks argue just discounts all of these socioeconomic factors. that make it hard for students to learn.
--:-- Noelle King: So Mike Miles very much falls on the reform side of that. Mike Miles is a reformer. He will not be alone, of course. it's not just him who has been appointed by the state. There's also a school board that's been appointed. Who are these people? Where do they come from in Houston?
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Right. So there are nine members on this appointed board, and the bulk of them live kind of west of downtown, northwest of downtown, in wealthy neighborhoods of Houston.
--:-- Noelle King: So these nine members largely are less representative of Houston geographically than the elected board was.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Why are people so concerned about this new board and this new superintendent, do they have some plans for the district that people sense are perhaps not above board or meant to make people's lives more difficult?
--:-- Noelle King: So they're concerned about the new board and the new superintendent, largely because there is no actual democratic method to hold them accountable. They're appointed by the state. They're, you could argue, beholden to the state.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: But yeah, there's this idea of this is a public good, a public institution, but right now it's not actually governed in a public way or in a democratic way. And so it opens the door for them to do things that might be unpopular.
--:-- Noelle King: Mike Miles also has already unveiled pretty sweeping reforms to 29 schools. They include Wheatley High School, as well as two others, and then all the elementary and middle schools that feed into them.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Every staff member at those schools has to reapply for their job. I imagine there are some teachers who don't like hearing that.
--:-- Noelle King: Yeah, you know, well, then they can prove me wrong, right? So please apply is what I would say and go through the instructional interview and then they'll get a job at $95,000.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: He's also said that in these 29 schools, there probably won't be a librarian, which has been very controversial.
--:-- Noelle King: We will have, obviously, books that kids can take, but not necessarily a librarian staffing it. So already he's unveiled reforms that have a lot of people concerned.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: How are parents in this big independent school district reacting to it having been taken over by the state? Is there even one reaction or are they divided?
--:-- Noelle King: Oh, it's a very mixed bag. TEA will say that our schools are failing, but I would say that TEA is failing us and our schools.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: There are folks who have wanted to see Houston ISD change for a long time. The last administration, they lied, they denied, they deflected. And we're just looking forward to a fresh start where the new board will be transparent with us.
--:-- Noelle King: Even the teachers union says yeah we recognize that there are things that could change But again the question is how are those changes made and who making them
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: What going to happen to Wheatley in the future That still up for grabs I don know But what I hope happens to Wheatley is that it stays the same It's continued thriving. People support. People come in and see for themselves and stop having a bad perception based off of the past or what someone told them.
--:-- Noelle King: The alumni base from Wheatley plays a really prominent role in both the push to reform schools and education in Texas and also against it.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: So the district that Wheatley is in within HISD, their elected board trustee went to Wheatley, and she was very much opposed to the takeover.
--:-- Noelle King: So to have seven people from the West Side that don't know anything about the North Side, the Northeast Side, and the South Side, that don't know that these kids have to pass a dope house walking to school, spare me.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: Folks are not excited about teacher turnover. They're not excited about not having school librarians. But there are definitely parents and teachers who see some potential good in these reforms.
--:-- Noelle King: There's both optimism and a lot of skepticism.
--:-- Dominic Anthony Walsh: That's reporter Dominic Anthony Walsh of KUHF.
--:-- Noelle King: You can catch Today Explained at 7.30 on weekdays there.
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--:-- Noelle King: Coming up next, this situation is not unprecedented. We're going to talk to a scholar who studies what tends to happen when a state takes over local schools.
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--:-- Noelle King: Today Explained, we're back. I'm Noelle King with Domingo Morel. He's a professor of polyscience and public service at NYU's Wagner School.
--:-- Domingo Morel: I'm Domingo Morel. I've been studying state takeovers of local schools for over 10 years now.
--:-- Noelle King: So I've been studying state takeovers of local schools for over 10 years now. I started off as my dissertation at Brown University. And then since then, I have published a book on state takeovers and have continued to research takeovers.
--:-- Domingo Morel: It's obviously of great interest to you. Were you by any chance educated in a school district where the state took it over?
--:-- Noelle King: So I did attend a public school system that was threatened to be taken over by the state, the Union City Public Schools in New Jersey in the 1990s. And then I graduated from the Providence Public Schools in Rhode Island, which was recently taken over by the state of Rhode Island.
--:-- Domingo Morel: So, yes, I do have experience.
--:-- Noelle King: How common is it for a state to take over an elected school board, a school board that's been democratically elected, as we are now seeing in Houston?
--:-- Domingo Morel: We have over 10,000 school districts in this country and only about 110 takeovers, roughly, over the last 30 years or so. So it's not very common.
--:-- Noelle King: What tends to be the case when a city's schools are taken over by the state? What sorts of things do these situations have in common?
--:-- Domingo Morel: Because we have, again, over 10,000 school districts across the country and only about 110 or so takeovers, the argument that takeovers are about improving schools or schools that are in need of improvement just does not hold.
--:-- Noelle King: Because if that was the case, we would have a lot more takeovers. There are a lot more school districts that are struggling.
--:-- Domingo Morel: But my research shows that there are several factors that are associated with the increased likelihood of a takeover. The first being populations of color, particularly African-American communities.
--:-- Noelle King: So once you have increased numbers of African-American students and a population, that increases the likelihood of a takeover.
--:-- Domingo Morel: The second factor is partisan politics. So usually takeovers are being led by Republican governors and Republican-led state legislatures, and they're happening in communities of color, which are mostly associated with the Democratic Party and particularly locally elected officials.
--:-- Noelle King: And finally, there's a question about resources. And so my research shows that when communities fight for more resources for their schools through the court systems and actually win court cases, that that increases the likelihood of a state passing a law to take over a school district.
--:-- Domingo Morel: So these are the factors that are mostly associated with that.
--:-- Noelle King: So in that case, based on your research, what we see happening in Houston today is actually the way it normally happens. It's absolutely consistent with what we see happening across states and cities that we have majority Republican, majority white state legislatures and governors taking over majority communities of color.
--:-- Domingo Morel: The rhetoric, the justification for the takeover is often about improving schools. That's what we hear from state officials. That's what we hear of supporters of state takeovers, that it's about improving schools.
--:-- Noelle King: Nearly 90 of Camden schools 23 out of 26 are in the bottom 5 performance of all in New Jersey We not acting because we got everything perfect and we not acting because we believe we know better We're acting because inaction is immoral.
--:-- Domingo Morel: However, what the research shows is that they don't lead to improved schools. They must think that there's something about their plan that's going to be different than what takeovers have looked like around the country.
--:-- Noelle King: And what we see is on average, they tend to not really support, do much to support students and improve their outcomes.
--:-- Domingo Morel: Now that we have, again, over 30 years of evidence that this is not what happens, what are the other factors that we see that are associated with this?
--:-- Noelle King: And so what happens is that it's, again, the racial partisan dynamics leads to the disempowering of communities, the losing of a school board, the losing of the ability to influence curriculum, decision-making for the school district, like who the superintendent is going to be and things like this, right?
--:-- Domingo Morel: And so the reality is that it's about not improving schools, but disempowering communities.
--:-- Noelle King: The scene is nothing short of apocalyptic. 80% of New Orleans, including much of downtown, is underwater. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the state took over the school district.
--:-- Domingo Morel: It became the first all-charter school district in the country. Seizing the moment, the state took control of the city's failing schools. Pink slips were sent to all 5,000 teachers.
--:-- Noelle King: And the state set out to remake New Orleans as a city where nearly all the schools would be independently run charters.
--:-- Domingo Morel: Local school officials were no longer in charge. And while the majority of the student population in New Orleans is black, the majority of the school board charter members were white.
--:-- Noelle King: Not only that, the New Orleans public schools had the largest black teaching force in the country at the time, Within 10 years after the takeover, it decreased by 25 percent.
--:-- Domingo Morel: So it was less than half of the school of the teaching force was black following the Hurricane Katrina.
--:-- Noelle King: And finally, thousands of jobs were lost. And most of these jobs, you know, they usually represent, you know, good, decent paying jobs for community members.
--:-- Domingo Morel: And so most of the people that lost out on these jobs were people from the city of New Orleans.
--:-- Noelle King: So this is what the New Orleans example shows.
--:-- Domingo Morel: And the data on school improvement has not been very strong. While there was some evidence in the early years that takeover led to improved schooling and outcomes in New Orleans, that has flattened off and in some cases has decreased.
--:-- Noelle King: So we just don't even have good evidence that after all of that, that the schools have improved in New Orleans.
--:-- Domingo Morel: Now, our reporter in Houston was telling us that some residents of that city are concerned about this takeover because the gentleman who's been appointed as superintendent does have a history of being a charter school guy.
--:-- Noelle King: Is that another trend that what we are pushing for when a state takes over in a particular city is there's a push to go charter?
--:-- Domingo Morel: If we see takeovers as a political act, a political intervention, and one that removes any opposition to an agenda that the state has, then we see how clearly charter schools are connected to this.
--:-- Noelle King: And so we do see that state takeovers are associated with the increased number of charter schools coming into the district.
--:-- Domingo Morel: While New Orleans is the most drastic example because it went to an all-charter school system, other districts have also increased their charter schools, although not all of the schools are charters.
--:-- Noelle King: So that is associated with takeover. And so I think that Houston, being so close to New Orleans, there are people within the district now who have seen New Orleans as a model.
--:-- Domingo Morel: I think it's fairly safe to assume that Houston is going to be looking to increase the number of charter schools, whether it's an all charter, majority charter, significant charter.
--:-- Noelle King: We don't know, but I think it's safe to assume that that is probably a reality in Houston.
--:-- Domingo Morel: One thing that has to be true for a state to get involved in a city's schools is that the schools just are not doing well. Some number of them, some percentage of them are not doing well by commonly held standards.
--:-- Noelle King: I am hearing you saying it often doesn't work out that well when a state comes in and takes over.
--:-- Domingo Morel: What other options does a state have? What other options does a city have?
--:-- Noelle King: You know, I was part of a public school system that was under threat. That was the Union City Public Schools.
--:-- Domingo Morel: And the Union City Public Schools were not taken over, and today is considered a model school district across this country.
--:-- Noelle King: And so what winds up happening in Union City? Well, Union City was able to get more resources from the state.
--:-- Domingo Morel: Officials did not view the local community as a problem that needed to be removed, but instead saw it as an asset that needed to be cultivated politically and economically.
--:-- Noelle King: And so the state can and should have a role to play in helping improve schools by providing adequate resources, by providing the expertise that they have at the state that may be lacking in some degree at the local level, but they can lend that support.
--:-- Domingo Morel: They can convene community groups, parents, school board members that create the spaces for people to come together to talk about what it is that needs to happen to improve the schools.
--:-- Noelle King: And so they can foster a community collaborative effort rather than taking over and separating communities from schools.
--:-- Domingo Morel: Domingo Morel, he teaches poli-sci and public service at NYU.
--:-- Noelle King: Today's episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlain and edited by Amina El-Sadi.
--:-- Domingo Morel: It was fact-checked by Laura Bullard and engineered by Michael Raphael.
--:-- Noelle King: I'm Noelle King. It's Today Explained.
