Last night’s TEA community meeting is a warning of what we can expect from the Texas Education Agency’s anti-democratic hostile takeover.

TEA said they would only answer written questions about the board of managers process and when parents complained, the TEA cherry-picked the questions to answer. The Kashmere meeting is last and most of the meetings are far away from the schools that are most at risk of closure.

Watch the meeting here and read “Parents share their outrage during first public meeting over Houston ISD takeover.” 

We should start calling this hostile takeover "taking the public out of public education."

The takeover and board of managers are not legitimate. They will curate a board of managers who may look like the diversity that is our city but they will be pawns, completely controlled by Governor Abbott’s misplaced priorities. They will say “we need to come together for our children, “ but that is code for more hyperaccountability (STAAR, STAAR, STAAR.) 

Yesterday, a fourth grade teacher told us that his students were crying and having stomach cramps during their interim STAAR practice test this week. This is the second complete STAAR test the students have taken since December and that does not even count the practice tests. IThese interim assessments are TEA's brainchild (FAULT) and if the takeover proceeds,  the conditions in which our children learn will worsen even more.

How else can you oppose the hostile takeover? 

• Join others to fight the hostile takeover on April 1st at a CVPE Meeting at Trinity Gardens Church of Christ, 1-2:30 pm. RSVP at houstoncvpe.org/events
• Opt out of STAAR: If the state is going to use STAAR scores to take over our schools and shame our children, then withhold your consent and deny the TEA your child’s testing results and data. Opt out! Read how at optouttexas.org.
• Stay informed so you can talk to your friends, neighbors, and colleagues about the hostile takeover. Go to our homepage at houstoncvpe.org for a one pager on state takeovers and a link to the petition to share.