State of Texas takes over Houston Schools

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ASPartOfMe
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15 Mar 2023, 8:08 pm

Texas announces takeover of Houston's public school district, the state's largest

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Texas officials on Wednesday announced a state takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student public school district, the eighth-largest in the country, acting on years of threats and angering Democrats who assailed the move as political.

The announcement, made by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s education commissioner, amounts to one of the largest school takeovers ever in the U.S.

It also deepens a high-stakes rift between Texas’ largest city, where Democrats wield control locally and state Republican leaders have sought increasing authority in the wake of election fumbles and pandemic restrictions.

Other big cities including Philadelphia, New Orleans and Detroit in recent decades have gone through state takeovers, which are generally viewed as last resorts for underperforming schools and are often met with community backlash. Critics argue that past outcomes show little improvement following state interventions.

Schools in Houston are not under mayoral control, unlike in cities such as New York or Chicago, but as expectations of a takeover mounted, the city’s Democratic leaders unified in opposition.

Most of Houston’s school board members have been replaced since 2019. District officials also say the state is ignoring academic strides made across city schools.

Race is also an issue because the overwhelming majority of students in Houston schools are Hispanic or Black. Domingo Morel, a professor of political science and public services at New York University, has studied school takeovers nationwide and said the political dynamics in Texas are similar to where states have intervened elsewhere.

The demographics in Houston, Morel said, are also similar.

“If we just focus on taking over school districts because they underperform, we would hav


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16 Mar 2023, 10:40 am

Not sure if this is really to improve the schools, or just another Abbott power grab.

Texas schools have been crap for at least the past 30 years.


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longshot
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22 Mar 2023, 9:09 am

Well, from what I have read about the demographic of the Houston school district, is that it's predominately populated by several minorities; which probably wouldn't vote for Abbot whatsoever, so I have a feeling he probably made up some bollocks under the guise that the district was performing extremely bad, and require the state having to step to take over and correct so called issues.

:x



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24 Mar 2023, 8:16 pm

longshot wrote:
Well, from what I have read about the demographic of the Houston school district, is that it's predominately populated by several minorities; which probably wouldn't vote for Abbot whatsoever, so I have a feeling he probably made up some bollocks under the guise that the district was performing extremely bad, and require the state having to step to take over and correct so called issues.

:x


The problem with our education system is that we're assessed almost entirely on standardized tests. The general sentiment is that once students pass the STAAR Test (the standardized test), teachers are otherwise apathetic, just going through the motions.

It isn't so much that there's no funding, it's that funding is usually spent more on shiny new football stadiums than on educational uses. There are high-school football stadiums in Texas that have NFL-level amenities.

We need a system that focuses on real-world applications, rather than memorization.


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25 Mar 2023, 9:03 am

We need a system that focuses on real-world applications, rather than memorization.[/quote]

Absolutely correct sir, instead of testing for tests..