On the HISD Takeover

Commentary got Xfinity restored yesterday. I got my regular internet and TV. I now feel complete.

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I am not surprised. You probably are not surprised. I am talking about a flag waving insurrectionist serving on the U.S. Supreme Court and his name is Samuel Alito.

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We are fixing to hit the one-year mark of the HISD takeover by the TEA. Best I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be a strategy to get back control of our schools unless you consider the protests a viable strategy. I don’t.

H-Town Mayor John Whitmire was recently asked by some folks to get involved in the fight against the HISD takeover.  What can he do? Not much.

It is GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, TEA’s Mike Morath, and their handpicked HISD Superintendent Mike Miles’s show. They are not accountable to us. Either they will get HISD in a shape to hand it back to us or run it further into the ground.

My good friend Anna Eastman last year wrote in an op-ed to give the takeover a chance. Anna now has an op-ed with a change of tune. Here is the entire read:

The op-ed headline:

I asked you to give the HISD takeover a chance. But we’ve seen enough.

The op-ed:

As a former Houston ISD parent and school board member, I initially encouraged Houstonians to be open to the state takeover and its potential benefits for our kids. I know firsthand that many things in HISD are broken. I truly believe we’ve been lying to many students and their parents about what they are getting from our schools when we hand them diplomas after spending up to 13 or even 14 years in our classrooms. 

At the same time, things in HISD can and do work well for those who are privileged or savvy enough to navigate the system. I hoped the takeover would fix what’s broken and expand what works.

That’s why I was crushed at a recent event hosted by the Houston Landing. State-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles avoided answering thoughtful questions from graduating HISD high school seniors. 

They asked about losing important community partnerships, including one with Ignite, an organization that provided a Sterling High School student with a college counselor. The student said that this year, her senior year, she’s struggled without that counselor. 

(Miles’ response: We have too many contractors and can’t afford them anymore.) 

The students asked about what constitutes a meaningful education. Now, they said, they watch their teachers no longer able to lead complex discussions in upper-level classes, instead being confined to timed, scripted lessons. 

(Miles: A meaningful education means being able to read, write and do math at grade level. And more. My wife and I were privileged enough to insist our three children to learn a musical instrument, play a team sport and learn philosophy so, yes, I do think those things are important and students at New Education System schools get those through dyads and Art of Thinking classes.)

The students asked about what they described as a “culture of fear.” Seniors from Bellaire and Furr High Schools said their teachers are sad and stressed to the point of not being able to or wanting to do their jobs. 

(Miles: We are paying higher salaries than we ever have, and if they don’t want to work here, they don’t have to.)

Even students at NES schools — the focal points of Miles’ reforms — complained that they’re  being forced to carry embarrassing and unsanitary traffic cones that some teachers won’t even touch as a bathroom pass. One Yates High School student said she felt her senior year had been marked by nothing but “following the rules.”  

(Miles: Well, 11th and 12th grades weren’t impacted that much by NES. [Cue audience laughs and disagreement from the students.] It’s not appropriate to make 17- and 18-year-olds carry traffic cones. Sorry it happened. It shouldn’t have happened. That was a mistake on your principal’s part.)

I learned the Japanese term kuuki yomenai, or “KY,” from my daughter’s Japanese-American college roommate a couple of years ago. It refers to people who can’t “read the air,” who don’t intuitively understand a given situation and behave accordingly — a highly valued skill in Japanese society.

I’m not sure there could be a more apt description of Mr. Miles’ demeanor and answers to the students’ questions.

Superintendent Miles visits many schools. He works very hard, and I think he believes he’s doing important work on behalf of Houston’s schoolchildren. I would agree that to some extent, particularly updating how we teach reading, this is true. 

But to hear him tick off an impressive list of academic offerings in Dallas ISD as proof he was on the right track, apparently ignorant that HISD already offered all those things and more before he got here, was insulting. 

Equally offensive was his response to brilliant, brave young people, who against many odds were realizing their and their family’s dreams of attending college. They asked how those who come after them will access and be prepared for college. Miles responded that he was going to offer more career and technology offerings. I know we need more quality, relevant career paths, but not at the expense of increasing college access for historically underrepresented students. 

We have to make hard choices because our state government has failed to fund our public schools sufficiently. But are these really the choices we need to be making?

Over the last year, I have sat in countless meetings in meetings with non-profit boards, local foundations or over dinner with friends who worried about what the new HISD administration might do. I have repeatedly said, “No, they would never do that.” I honestly believed they would leave alone the things that worked. Now even Miles says that his biggest failure was not defining what autonomy meant for campuses.

About two months ago, I stopped defending the takeover. Now I fear that Miles and the nine appointed board members are wreaking havoc on schools that didn’t need fixing — havoc much like the storms last week that leveled many of Houston’s stately live oaks and left so many without power. They need to figure out how to read the air. 

Anna Eastman is a former HISD parent, HISD trustee and state representative. 

I give Anna credit for being honest. 

It is a big mess. Let’s not forget how we got into this mess. Some folks who were in charge dropped the ball big time.  These folks that got us into this mess were never held accountable. Oh, well.

I will say it again. I don’t see a strategy to get us out of this mess.

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The Astros won 7 out of 10 during the homie. We start a 7 game West Coast roadie tomorrow.