Texas Education Agency will take control of Houston ISD

Why aren't the resident Libertarians in an uproar about this as this goes against the fundamental core principle of libertarianism at least as claimed:
Limited government. Small local governments know what's best for their community. This is a talking point of libertarians since defending slavery.

I know the answer of why. Because nothing about libertainiams is principled. It's simply an ideology of people at the top of the social and economic hiearchy wanting to maintain their hiearchy. That's it. All decisions and silence on certain issues makes perfect sense when you see libertarians at their core as nothing but a group of people who want to maintain their privilege.

 

You’re talking fake snake-flag libertarians.

 

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That's the vast majority of libertarians. The intellectual side of libertarianism is just as greedy but it's ultra wealthy people being greedy like Peter Teil.

Wealthy intellectual libertarians have a long history of trying to avoid taxes by making things like failed ocean communities because these people are so narcissistic they believe all the wealth they generated had nothing to do with the tax paid infrastructure in the US. Most of these guys are highly narcissistic.

These are the type of people who were outraged when Obama said "you didn't build that by yourself".

The wealthy multimillionaire sea-steading tax dodgers are not part of the same redneck culture you find in places like New Hampshire with those type of flags always in site in that state.

Find me an intellectual Libertarian and I'll guarantee you at the core essence of why they claim that ideology is to maintain the social hierarchy and privilege that they currently have.

 

good argument for school choice

 

I get the impression morale is taking a hit. One teacher I know is talking about leaving to teach overseas. Another about early retirement. I'm sure we have hisd teachers in the bbs, right? How y'all feeling?

 

Conservatives seem to want to destroy our public institutions in order to insert their Christian, business friendly institutions.

 

I've taught for almost 20 years at the same location. I love my school, the students and community. I have never truly considered the possibility of leaving, that is until now. Not a good feeling when you start questioning your worth and the impact you make on students when the person in charge doesn't value what you do. At least I'm fortunate to be at a good school with a supportive administration that so far isn't under the NES umbrella. But the anxiety of what the future may hold has me questioning whether I want to stay beyond a few more years.

Education is so much more than just numbers and data. You cannot quantify kids.

 

Sucks. My wife is in education in Texas and we're looking at GTFO soon too. It's not an education-friendly state. And that's exactly what the GOP wants, to drive down education quality so they can push their school voucher program (and get $$$ from the for-profit school companies).

 

Thanks for your perspective. If I had kids still in hisd, I'd probably be blowing this thread up.

 

definitely a lot of it, it also works as a cover for the targeting of minority and minority groups. Though, to be honest even the 'business friendly' part is on thin ice, as a lot of the GOP seems to have decided the way to keep people loyal to their vote is targeting culture war, sometimes even at the expense of good business.

 

As a graduate of Houston Public Schools this is really sad to see. I don't have kids and don't live in Houston anymore but if I did I wouldn't send them to HISD schools.

 

This seems like a really dumb idea, the district is being taken over because of bad grades and you take away the library and turn it into a disciplinary area? Trying to understand this, is it because everything is online, and no one uses it anymore? Trying to wrap my head around the "why"

 

Libraries have woke books... librarians are woke.

 

State taking over a local school district in a political way. This is not the principle of small government or conservatism.

Racism's ugly head is rearing its head again. HISD has a 2+:1 black to white population, so they want to discipline that population, ignoring that discipline doesn't work in education (or in anything when dealing with supporting children).

Elections have consequences, but when local elections don't matter since the State rules over the locals, I think the resentment is going to eventually build to a boiling point.

 

The idea is that disruptive kids will zoom into class from the former library so they can't disrupt the other kids. Still not crazy about it, but there is a method to the madness.

 

And it's also supposed to be a place for students who've finished their classroom work to complete additional, more challenging material. I don't disagree with the idea, but I am skeptical of how effective the "zoom rooms" will be. But to create such a room out of the library is addition by subtraction. Same for eliminating librarians to essentially pay for the higher salaries of the core teachers. You want to concentrate on improving reading skills but you sacrifice valuable resources and tools to help in that goal. And how long before those former libraries are gutted of their books because they're never returned? Relying on an honor system? Students have trouble returning books WITH librarians to manage the collections!

 

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath Has Allowed Underperforming Charter Schools to Expand — ProPublica

In June, Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath embarked on the largest school takeover in recent history, firing the governing board and the superintendent of the Houston Independent School District after one of its more than 270 schools failed to meet state educational standards for seven consecutive years.

Though the state gave Houston’s Wheatley High School a passing score the last time it assigned ratings, Morath charged ahead, saying he had an obligation under the law to either close the campus or replace the board. He chose the latter.

Drastic intervention was required at Houston ISD not just because of chronic low performance, he said, but because of the state’s continued appointment of a conservator, a person who acts as a manager for troubled districts, to ensure academic improvements.

When it comes to charter school networks that don’t meet academic standards, however, Morath has been more generous.

Since taking office more than seven years ago, Morath has repeatedly given charters permission to expand, allowing them to serve thousands more students, even when they haven’t met academic performance requirements. On at least 17 occasions, Morath has waived expansion requirements for charter networks that had too many failing campuses to qualify, according to a ProPublica and Texas Tribune analysis of state records. The state’s top education official also has approved five other waivers in cases where the charter had a combination of failing schools and campuses that were not rated because they either only served high-risk populations or had students too young to be tested.

Only three such performance waivers had been granted prior to Morath, who declined numerous requests for comment. They had all come from his immediate predecessor, according to the Texas Education Agency.

...

“Incredibly Hypocritical”


While proposing the approval of a new round of charter schools in June 2021, Morath spoke in stark terms about what was at stake for those that underperformed. Because charters are given freedom from many state regulations, they must meet strict academic standards that force them to close even earlier than traditional schools or keep them from expanding, he said: “They perform or they seek a career in banking.”

Under state rules, charter organizations seeking to grow must face a four-part test that requires them to demonstrate adequate academic, financial and operational performance before they can serve more students, Morath said. “If you don’t pass this four-part test, then you don’t get an expansion,” he told the State Board of Education.

Morath’s choice to repeatedly waive those rules raises concerns for some members of the board, which has no control over whether charters are allowed to expand, even as the expansion of existing networks has become the primary driver of charter growth in the state. More than 7% of the state’s 5.5 million schoolchildren were enrolled in state-authorized charter schools during the last academic year.

Pat Hardy, a Republican who has served on the board for more than 20 years, said granting waivers to charter networks with even one failing school goes against the intent of the law that established them.

...

Little Oversight


The authority over whether to allow charters to expand used to belong to the 15-member elected State Board of Education. But the Legislature transferred that power to the state’s education commissioner in 2001. More recently, it repealed a provision in state law that appeared to conflict with that earlier change.

The board has in recent years unsuccessfully asked the Legislature to restore its authority over charter growth.

“I think a lot of my colleagues would be more open to approving charters initially, or not vetoing them, if they knew they were going to have additional input down the road on expansions. Because right now, once we approve them, we just go away in the process,” Keven Ellis, the Republican chair of the state education board, said in an interview. “If we had more authority later on, I think it would give us a little more comfort.”

Instead of increasing the board’s authority, the Legislature has over the years given more power to the education commissioner.