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THE TROUBLING TREND OF STATE TAKEOVERS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS  
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Georgia Jensen
August 6, 2024
Inequality.org
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_ Educational inequality is a major issue, and change is necessary.
But a takeover is not the answer. Too often, it is an instrument of
conservative politicians wielded against local communities who find
their voices shut out. _

, (Courtesy of Community Voices for Public Education)

 

The state takeover of Houston Independent School District, the
eighth-largest public school system in the United States, is entering
its second year. 

State-appointed superintendent Mike Miles is celebrating
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occasion by touting state test score results that show preliminary
improvement in student achievement. Other leaders in education across
the country are paying close attention
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Miles’ tactics to see if they’re effective enough to implement in
their own schools.

Since 1989, over 100
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districts across the U.S. have been subjected to state takeovers, in
which the state seizes control
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low-performing or financially struggling school districts, replacing
their locally elected school boards. This is done with the goal
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dramatically improving the district’s academic or financial
performance. State takeovers are difficult to neatly describe because
they vary from place to place depending on the policies that the
state-appointed board and superintendent decide to implement. But they
are overwhelmingly ineffective.

A 2021 study
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by researchers from Brown University and the University of Virginia
analyzed over 100 state takeovers between 1989 and 2016. It found
“no evidence that takeover generates academic benefits.” In fact,
it can take years for schools to return to their previous levels of
academic achievement after a takeover. 

Beyond that, takeovers are emblematic of a worrying trend in education
that extends beyond Houston and hurts low-income learners and students
of color most. 

The study also showed that state takeovers disproportionately target
districts with higher concentrations of low-income and nonwhite
students, regardless of academic achievement. But another study
revealed that majority-Black districts rarely see financial
improvement [[link removed]] in the years
following a takeover.  

The Brown study also found that takeovers tend to happen in states
with both a Republican governor and a Republican-controlled
legislature. This should be really alarming given the fact that those
same states are also passing legislation like requiring the Ten
Commandments
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be displayed in public school classrooms and restricting
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discussion of race, sex, and gender in schools.

HISD is no different.

As of 2022 [[link removed]],
almost 80 percent of HISD students were considered economically
disadvantaged, and the overwhelming majority were students of color.
Education is supposed to be the great equalizer, but state takeovers
exacerbate education inequality for low-income and minority students.
Too often in conservative states, they disrupt existing communities
and feed students subpar and radicalizing material. 

In 2019, out of HISD’s almost three hundred campuses, just one
school’s repeated failure to meet state standards allowed the Texas
Education Agency to take over the entire district. HISD had managed
to fight off
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for four years.

During that time, their academic accountability scores improved
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In 2022, the district received a high B, performing better
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several other districts in the state, and Phillis Wheatley High
School, the 97-year old historically Black campus that had triggered
the state takeover law, improved its score to a passing 78.

Last year, the Texas Education Agency took over anyway, appointing
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nine-person board of managers and Mike Miles, formerly the very
controversial
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of Dallas ISD, to transform the Houston public school system. 

As a result of the takeover, the Texas Education Agency implemented a
scripted curriculum in HISD schools. This past year, Miles had
to reassign
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group of teachers to review the provided curriculum, which was found
to be riddled with errors and inappropriate content, including
ChatGPT-sourced material. He also faced backlash after it was revealed
that students were being shown videos
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human-caused climate change from the conservative Prager University
Foundation.

Now, the Texas Education Agency is offering
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school districts in the state $60 per student to teach a new
curriculum that contains extensive biblical references. For students
in Texas schools, culture war politics are increasingly invading
education, and districts taken over by the state have no choice but to
teach its curriculum. 

There are several other problems with the HISD takeover. 28 schools
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the most radical reforms this year, and an additional 57 were brought
into the new system but didn’t experience some of the larger
structural changes.

State requirements for certified teachers, deans, and assistant
principals
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ease the hiring process, while veteran teachers had to reapply
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their positions, with many not offered the chance to return. 

A militaristic
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environment was enforced, with teachers forced to rush through timed
and scripted lessons
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students made to participate approximately once every four minutes
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When students had to use the restroom, they had to carry a large
traffic cone
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a hall pass, which many felt was humiliating and dehumanizing.

Libraries were converted into “team centers
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that housed both students who finished their lessons early and
students with discipline problems made to watch their lessons
virtually, while librarians
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let go and, in several cases, shelves emptied.

All of these reforms have led to a budget deficit of almost $200
million for this year and a projected shortfall of over $500 million
for next year that Miles is attempting to make up partially through
the cutting of special education
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who help students dealing with homelessness and hunger. Many have
questioned the long-term financial feasibility
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the takeover.

On August 8, the district’s state-appointed board of managers will
decide whether or not to put its proposed $4.4 billion bond
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which it says will be put toward renovating facilities and improving
school safety, among other promised improvements. Opponents to the
takeover, including the American Federation of Teachers, have spoken
out
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the bond, citing their lack of faith in Miles and embracing the
rallying cry “No trust, no bond.”

Meanwhile, Miles seeks to implement a pay-for-performance
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where teacher pay — and continuing employment — will be tied to
standardized test scores and evaluations. For now, he’s settled
for raising teacher pay, but only for the 28 schools required to
follow the new model, and only for those teachers whose grades and
subjects are tested on state exams. Furthermore, teachers can only
benefit for as long as they manage to stay employed at those schools.

This past year, teacher turnover was almost double
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usual rate, as teachers and administrators both
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to resign in protest to the reforms and were not asked back throughout
the year. 

It is possible that some of Miles’ practices are worth considering,
but a year of teacher, parent, and student responses only support the
growing body of evidence that show that takeover is not the way to go
about it. Protests
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walkouts
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the takeover continued until the end of the school year, with
community members complaining that their concerns
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been repeatedly ignored or dismissed.

We can all acknowledge that educational inequality is a major issue,
and change is necessary. But a takeover is not the answer. Too often,
it is an instrument of conservative politicians wielded against local
communities who find their voices shut out, and the most vulnerable
students pay the price.

Instead of allowing the state to take over our schools, we need to
turn to proven solutions like increasing per-pupil spending
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which has been shown to address achievement gaps faced by low-income
students. According to a 2018 Rutgers study
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Texas needs to spend $12,000 more per student to bring its poorest
students up to national average outcomes.

We owe it to all of our students to find effective and sustainable
reforms that center their needs. Education should not be a power
struggle. Instead, it should be a way to uplift and empower
communities and to help give students the start that they need to
succeed in life.

_GEORGIA JENSEN IS THE HENRY WALLACE FELLOW WORKING ON THE
INEQUALITY.ORG PROJECT._

_Inequality.org has been tracking inequality-related news and views
for nearly two decades. A project of the Institute for Policy Studies
since 2011, our site aims to provide information and insights for
readers ranging from educators and journalists to activists and policy
makers._

Our _Inequality.org_ contributors come from the United States and
around the world. Our focus throughout: What can we do to narrow the
staggering economic inequality that so afflicts us in almost every
aspect of our lives?

* public schools
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* Charter schools
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* Houston
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* education policy
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* racial inequality
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