Yesterday’s Houston ISD board vote was a victory for public education.After public outcry, the board voted to remove item K.46 from the agenda and table it indefinitely. Read more in this Houston Chronicle article published yesterday and here from Monday. [En español]

This victory was only possible because of the parents, students, teachers, community members, and community leaders who organized and came together to highlight how harmful this proposed policy was to our public schools. It would have made it easy for HISD schools to be taken over by charter operators. Thank you! 

This charter giveaway policy would have been disastrous to our public education system. It would have eliminated our elected board members’ authority to vote on charter applications and opened the door to charlatans eager to make money on the backs of our children. How will HISD ever pass a bond to rebuild its aging elementary schools if its schools are controlled by unaccountable private interests?

A Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) spokesman told the Houston Chronicle on Monday that he has never seen anything like this.

It is all but certain that there will be another attempt to pass this harmful policy down the road. We must be ready.

Let’s remember that the real problem rests with the State Legislature,underfunding public education even in the aftermath of COVID. Push them to fully fund our schools. 

Push them to repeal HB 1842 which allows the state to charter school districts simply based on STAAR scores even though charters have higher failure rates than public schools and spend 67% more on central administration than real public schools. Push them to repeal SB 1882 which dangles extra money at a school district in order to get the district to charter. 

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 Save the date: Our next CVPE meeting with be on Sept. 24 from 1-2:30 on zoom. RSVP here. See you there.