On Thursday night, mothers, teachers, and others calmly shared their well-reasoned concerns about the takeover. Only when the board started their voting to suspend HISD board policy did the crowd object loudly. Watch the board meeting here. Read more

The disenfranchisement has begun. F. Mike Miles plans to “reconstitute” schools that are mostly in Black and Brown Northeast Houston neighborhoods, while 7 of 9 Board of Managers live in affluent neighborhoods west of downtown. This Thursday the BOM will be voting to “suspend board policy regarding meeting dates, denying the public a regularly scheduled time to be heard. Written communication with the Board of Managers is currently unavailable to the public. Read more

The HISD occupation happened at dawn. Governor Abbott and the Texas Education Agency call all the shots now.  [En Español] Read more

First there were three, then there were two. Now there is just one. [En Espanol] At the May 18th HISD Special Board Meeting, the Texas Education Agency Deputy Commissioner Lecholop told the public that there would be three public Board of Managers meetings in June. Since then, they reduced the number of meetings to two. As of today, there is now only one public meeting. Read more

Oppose the occupation. This takeover will worsen inequalities. In the aftermath of the pandemic, it looks like the novice board of managers will focus even more on STAAR than ever before. Read more

Mike Miles, the possible superintendent, apparently has a secret 200-page plan to quickly close 20-30 schools, charter some, and gut wraparound services once the takeover happens on June 1st. But Morath said nothing about that on Tuesday when he spoke to teachers.  Read more

TIME SENSITIVE: Will you FLOOD the House with emails and phone calls from TEXANS saying No to VOUCHERS and NO to EXPANDING HIGH-STAKES TESTING from 20 to 48 tests! Watch the hearing live now. Read more

REMINDER: Saturday (May 13th) CVPE Zoom meeting noon-1:30 pm to discuss the state takeover and Governor Abbott's attack on public schools. We will also watch a clip from "A Perfect Storm: The Takeover of New Orleans Public Schools" and discuss how these two power grabs are similar and lessons we can learn. RSVP at houstoncvpe.org/events Read more

This Thursday is the last board meeting before the hostile takeover of Houston ISD by the unelected and unaccountable board of managers.  If you are wondering why the BOM have not been announced yet, it is probably so they can meet in secret this month to get their marching orders from Morath. Once the board of managers are announced, no more than four can meet at a time without violating the open meetings act.  Read more

On Tuesday, Governor Abbott came to Houston on his statewide tour to try to dismantle public education. Like PT Barnum, he continued to sell vouchers as an "opportunity" for parents even though the $8,000 voucher is not enough to cover tuition at most private schools and even though his plan would eliminate protections for many families, especially students with disabilities. Vouchers are essentially a discount plan for the wealthy.  Read more