March 15, 2023      11:42 AM
In the middle of Spring Break, TEA confirms state takeover of the largest school district in Texas
Education Commissioner Morath briefed lawmakers this morning on plans for the Houston ISD; Chair Dutton stands by his push for this, but other minority members are outraged while Republicans applaud the Abbott Administration’s move
Editor’s note: This is
a developing story and will be updated with other reactions and analysis
throughout the day – SB
“You could cut the tension
with a knife,” said one lawmaker who attended a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning
with Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, who was at the Capitol
to talk about plans for the state takeover of the Houston Independent School
District to begin in June.
Commissioner Morath told
lawmakers about the long-rumored plan. TEA confirmed it publicly later.
It’s also our
understanding that Morath gave a series of embargoed interviews to various news
outlets in Houston late yesterday about all this. In recent weeks, Houston
Mayor Sylvester Turner, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Sen. John
Whitmire, and other Democratic leaders from the area have spoken out
against the plan. That was after Mayor Turner said earlier this month that he
had heard TEA was about to do this.
"It is a total
obliteration of local control," Turner said at that time. "It is
creating a bad model."
In the closed-door Capitol
meeting this morning, Commissioner Morath told members of the Harris County
delegation that HISD performed worse than other school districts during the 2019
to 2022 school years. Images tweeted from the meeting showed Morath presenting
his evidence with charts in a committee room.
By Scott Braddock
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