Mike Miles is now pushing seven A-rated HISD high schools into SB 1882 partnerships, introduced secretly in "opt in- or else" secret meetings with principals and acknowledged only after parents, teachers, and the media found out. He’s selling 1882 as “more autonomy” and “more funding,” but that’s not how these deals work. Under 1882, Miles decides what services campuses must buy from the district. And because schools lose economies of scale, the extra 1882 dollars can get eaten up by hidden costs — compliance staffing, legal requirements, and district service fees. In the end, schools gain neither real autonomy nor meaningful funding. With Miles’s record of broken promises, this isn’t a gift — it’s a takeover in disguise.
Mike Miles has shown HISD parents, teachers, and taxpayers exactly who he is again and again.
- He told us principals opted into NES, even though many were quietly promised their teachers would not be forced out, a promise we know was not kept. That’s not choice; that’s coercion.
- He claimed 95% of teachers were “happy” in HISD, yet months later thousands left the district.
- Miles claimed enrollment declines this year are minimal, but tHISD’s enrollment total includes an astonishing 5,156-student (82%) surge at Texas Connections since last January, masking the real HISD enrollment decline due to the harmful takeover. Without that boost, HISD actually lost 12,645 students, not 7,489 in a single year.
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”-Maya Angelou
⚠️ What Is an 1882 Partnership?
SB 1882 was created by the Legislature in 2017 to support turnaround (low test score) campuses or innovative new campuses. It was not intended for already existing A-rated campuses. 1882 partners receive a two-year reprieve in accountability sanctions and extra funding which incentivizes a school district to form in-district charter partnerships. Districts can partner with nonprofits or charter operators, and TEA must approve the contract for schools to receive extra funding.
🏫 Who’s Eligible — and Why is Miles doing this
Seven HISD high schools with four years of A ratings and less than 25% racial disparity in scores are eligible, but the process has been anything but transparent. Miles and his staff met with principals in secret, and the news only went public after parents and teachers caught wind of it, and the media was about to run a story. As with other so-called “opt-in” programs, a more accurate description would be “opt in or else.”
Principals Moving Forward at this time: HSPVA, Challenge, Energy, HAIS (though they could theoretically decline later)
Principals taking a “wait and see” approach: Carnegie, DeBakey, Eastwood
Nothing is to prevent Miles from letting them retain autonomy without having to partner/charter under 1882. In fact, no student in any school in HISD should have to experience even one more day of this harmful takeover.
Why now? Miles is running out of money to prop up his pet projects, so under the guise of offering schools more autonomy and funding, he is presenting this Trojan horse as if it were a real solution. But as we have seen with everything else he has promised, schools will end up with neither more autonomy nor more funding, only more control in his hands.
Miels is both trying to placate parents with false promises and also hastening the way for charter sales after he starts closing schools in February. He is trying to normalize the balkanizing of HISD.
💸 Myth vs. Reality
Myth: 1882 brings money and autonomy.
Reality: Schools get a bump — roughly $750–$1,500 per student — but most of it gets swallowed by bureaucracy. Miles has already said he would keep half the funds for district use.
👥 Who’s in Charge?
Under 1882, charter partners need no experience running schools. They can be an established or new 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a university partner, or a charter operator. Their unelected boards set pay, policies, and grievance rules with little community or educator oversight. The partner has sole authority over hiring, firing, and managing staff, including the principal, and the contract determines whether employees work for the partner or the district.
💰 How the Money Actually Works
State law says very little about how in-district charters must operate, which means the real power lies in the contract details. Miles can require partners to buy services at specific rates from HISD like transportation, nutrition, Special Ed, HVAC, allowing him to keep both control and cash.
Partners must also “staff up” their 501(c)(3) to handle compliance, legal reporting, FERPA-secure systems, PEIMS data, and background checks, etc. In practice, by the time these required expenses are added, many partners simply don’t have enough funding left to effectively run the school. Here is a list of SB 1882 charters across the state.
And with Miles, beware of gifts wrapped in promises. ‘Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.’
📉 What Happens in Real Life: A Warning
In most 1882 arrangements, the district is usually the desperate party, anxious to make the partnership work and willing to offer generous concessions. Partners often receive free or heavily subsidized services such as no utility costs or free transportation, as seen in Austin ISD with the Third Future School in district charter partnership at Mendez MS.
One SB 1882 contract shows the district charging the charter partner $150 per hour for grounds maintenance, and an astonishing $325 per student for health services (essentially a school nurse). These rates appear in the contract addendums on pages 293 and 295.
And at a San Antonio in-district charter, despite concerns expressed by parents and teachers, the contract did not allow teachers to remain employees of the district so that they could transition to another campus if needed or if terminated by the charter. As a result, almost every teacher left that 1882 campus. Campus rating fell from a B to a D in one year.
While Miles insists this scenario (teachers becoming at-will employees) will not happen in HISD, the truth is that nothing in the law prevents it. And even if it doesn’t occur in the first year for schools considering 1882, it could easily arise in future contract negotiations.
Yet administrative fees can also swing the balance the other way. In Beaumont ISD, for example, the district kept roughly 25% of funds for administrative services, leaving the partner — ironically Mike Miles’s own charter network, Third Future Schools — struggling to operate. That financial strain is ultimately why TFS ended its SB 1882 partnership.
In HISD, however, the roles are reversed: the seven schools seeking autonomy are the desperate ones. And it appears that Miles has learned how to use the partnerships to his advantage from his experiences in Beaumont. That desperation puts CVHS, HSPVA, and the other high-performing schools at a strategic disadvantage in negotiations they should never have been forced into.
When funding doesn’t add up, 1882 partners face three bad options:
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Hand the school back mid-contract (Third Future Schools in Beaumont)
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Collapse mid-year (Victory Prep, a former HISD in-district charter)
- Fundraise constantly just to stay afloat and/or cut staff and services at the campus level.
Finally, unlike other 1882 partnerships, Miles sits on both sides of the deal. Without the checks and balances of an elected board to challenge the district’s pricing on behalf of the taxpayers, Miles can unilaterally decide what each campus is charged.
Heads: Miles wins. Tails: Miles wins.
But we can fight back. Share your story at the Dec. 11 board meeting, in grievances, lawsuits, to the commission and with reporters, and host house meetings to build our collective power
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