State takeover of HISD (Houston, Austin: school district, vouchers, property taxes)

[houston-nomad]

It seems this is likely to happen soon. Taking over the largest school district in Texas because one school had bad ratings for a couple of years, which they have since improved? Sounds mighty fishy to me. I don't think it's crazy to think that our Houston-hating, public-education-hating leaders in Austin may have something nefarious in mind.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/a...emain-unclear/

[hbcu]

access to money - bottom line

but the state is the one who created this mess - they allow charter schools to set up shop in the same district siphoning the best students - they create insane special ed guidelines and understaff it - they allow the creation of magnet programs to kill off historically schools in certain areas which led to the closures

[Dopo]

And people say that my idea of each county controlling the schools is crazy
But the state of Texas takes control of HISD that has a population of about 1.5 million people

[txdad99]

I don’t see how the state taking it over will help. If anything, knowing our leaders it will just get worse.

[airdrawndagger]

Can someone explain the implication(s) of a state takeover? Does this impact the HISD portion of property taxes?

[houston-nomad]

My understanding is that your taxes would not be implicated. They still have to fund the schools. The change is that people from the TEA would take over the school board and superintendent position. They could then re-organize things however they wanted. I don't know what qualifications those people have.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by hbcu

access to money - bottom line

but the state is the one who created this mess - they allow charter schools to set up shop in the same district siphoning the best students - they create insane special ed guidelines and understaff it - they allow the creation of magnet programs to kill off historically schools in certain areas which led to the closures

HISD sets up the magnet programs.

The federal government is the primary driver of the special ed guidelines.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

My understanding is that your taxes would not be implicated. They still have to fund the schools. The change is that people from the TEA would take over the school board and superintendent position. They could then re-organize things however they wanted. I don't know what qualifications those people have.

The problem seems to be the clowns elected to the school board recently. HISD had the issues any other large district had, but wasn't doing bad 10-15 years ago.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by bu2

The problem seems to be the clowns elected to the school board recently. HISD had the issues any other large district had, but wasn't doing bad 10-15 years ago.

The clowns are no longer on the board of trustees.

[houston-nomad]

The state is actively trying to promote school vouchers, which is a way of defunding public education in favor of private (often Christian) schools. If at the same time they manage to take over HISD, they'll have a huge opportunity to advance that agenda.