Texas officials on Wednesday announced a state takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000 student public school district, the eighth largest in the country.

The announcement from the Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s education commissioner amounts to one of the largest school takeovers ever in the US

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The takeover is the most recent example of Republican and mostly white state officials pushing to take control of actions in large-minority and Democratic-run cities. They include St. Louis and Jackson, Miss., where legislatures are pushing to take over the water system and for a greater role for state police and appointed judges. In a letter to the Houston Independent School District, state education commissioner Mike Morath said the Texas Education Agency supt. Millard will replace House II and the district’s elected Board of Trustees with a new superintendent and an appointed board of managers made up of area residents. district boundaries. Morath said the board has failed to improve student outcomes by holding chaotic board meetings marred by infighting and violating open assemblies and procurement laws. his approach to supporting students with disabilities. He cited the seven-year record of poor academic performance at one of the district’s approximately 50 high schools, Wheatley High, as well as the poor performance of several other campuses. “A school system’s governing body bears ultimate responsibility for the outcomes of all students. While the current Board of Trustees has made progress, systemic issues in Houston ISD continue to affect district students,” Morath wrote in his six-page letter. Most Houston board members have been replaced since the state began moving toward a takeover in 2019. House became superintendent in 2021. He and the current school board will remain on until the new board is elected sometime after June 1. new board of directors will be appointed for at least two years House pointed to progress in a statement He said his focus will now be on ensuring a smooth transition without disruption to our core mission of providing an exceptional educational experience to all students and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas condemned the takeover At a press conference in Austin, the Democratic state leaders are calling on the legislature to increase education efforts and raise teacher salaries. We recognize that there has been underperformance in the past, primarily due to that severe underfunding in our public schools, said State Representative Armando Walle, who represents parts of North Houston. An annual Census Bureau survey of public school funding found that Texas spent $10,342 per student in fiscal year 2020, more than $3,000 less than the national average, according to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University in Houston. The state was able to take over the district under a state law amendment proposed by Houston Democratic State Representative Harold Dutton Jr. in 2015. In an opinion piece

the Houston chronicle

Dutton said Monday he has no regrets for what he did. We hear voices of opposition, people saying HISD should have no consequences if a campus failed for more than five consecutive years. That concern from critics is misplaced, Dutton wrote.

Schools in other major cities, including Philadelphia, New Orleans and Detroit, have faced state takeovers in recent decades, generally viewed as a last resort for underperforming schools and often met with community resistance. Critics argue that government intervention has generally not led to major improvements.

Texas began moving to take over the district after allegations of misconduct by school administrators, including improper influence on supplier contracts, and chronically low academic scores at Wheatley High School. The district sued to block a takeover, but new education laws were subsequently passed by the GOP-controlled legislature and a January ruling by the Texas Supreme Court paved the way for the state to take control. We Texans all have a duty and should come together to reinvent HISD in a way that ensures we will provide the best quality education to those children, Abbott said Wednesday. Schools in Houston are not under mayoral control, in New York and Chicago, but contrary to expectations of a takeover, the city’s Democratic leaders united in opposition. Race is also an issue because the vast majority of students in Houston schools are Latino or Black. Domingo Morel, a professor of political science and public services at New York University, said the political and racial dynamics in the Houston case are similar to cases where states have intervened elsewhere. If we just focused on taking over school districts because they’re underperforming, we’d have a lot more takeovers, Morel said. But that’s not what’s happening.” Lozano reported from Houston and Weber from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Acacia Coronado in Austin contributed to this report.