Multi-billionaire real estate developer Frank Liu is building a new charter school at the former Maxwell House plant. He needs students to fill it. That’s the real reason why Mike Miles closed so many East End schools. We may not have a seat at the table with the billionaires, but you can do a small thing today to help parents at the schools Miles just closed.
Families at the 12 closed schools were not planning to change schools. Then the other shoe dropped. They got just two weeks’ notice that their schools would close and only a one-week extension to submit school choice applications. In that time, were parents really expected to research options, plan transportation, visit schools, consult family, and submit an application?
One extra week. That is it. A slap in the face to every parent impacted by these closures. You can bet this is not how it would go at Kinkaid, where Board of Manager Angela Flowers teaches. Every parent deserves dignity. This is not dignity.
Shame on us for not fully funding systems that ensure a high quality, open-enrollment public school in every neighborhood.
HISD must extend the school choice deadline to May and give families from the 12 closed schools priority placement.
Email and call your elected representatives and ask them to contact Mike Miles and demand he do right by families whose schools were announced for closure on Feb 12th, closed Feb 26th and then given just one extra week before spring break to find a new school. The appointed board and Miles don’t answer to voters, and they don’t listen.
Miles may point to low enrollment (due to Miles’ own policies) or facility conditions to justify closing Alcott ES, Briscoe ES, Burrus ES, Cage ES, Franklin ES, Hobby ES, Nat Q Henderson ES, Port Houston ES, Betsy Ross ES, Fleming MS, McReynolds MS, and Middle College High School. But the truth is robber baron politics, where a few powerful players call the shots and the public is sidelined.
A new East End charter school is opening in the fall at the former Maxwell House Coffee plant. It needs students. Closing nearby neighborhood schools makes that easier. Before you celebrate a new fine arts school in the East End, remember this. Charter schools and magnet schools can legally exclude higher-need students to boost ratings. Real public schools cannot.
One Port Houston parent said a charter called daily to recruit her daughter. But the moment they learned her son has autism, the calls stopped. School choice for some but not for all. That is not what democracy should look like. This is not the promise of public education, and it bodes poorly for our future.
The Board of Managers owes families hit hardest by these closures more. Give every family time. Give every family fairness. Give every family respect.
Do you like this page?