A Suspicious HFT Says Politics, Not Concern For Students, is Behind TEA Takeover of HISD
Suggesting that politics, not concern for students, is behind the Texas Education Agency decision to take over the Houston ISD school board, Houston Federation of Teachers President Zeph Capo Monday charged the state agency with a continued attempt to privatize education in the state — supporting charters not public schools.
"We have doubts whether this is really about student achievement or is this about easy pickings," Capo said at a news conference he called at union headquarters. While saying he did not want parents to panic, he complained that TEA has not said what it is going to do yet, what its goals are. "What we see is privatization instead of education being the driver of this decision."
Last week, citing numerous bad actions and dysfunction by elected HISD school board members as well as the continued failure to meet state standards at historic Wheatley High School, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath announced he was following his TEA investigators' advice and replacing the elected board with an appointed one of his own choosing.
Sitting in on Monday's HFT press conference by Skype was Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, of which HFT is an affiliate. She said the idea that TEA had to step in because of actions by the HISD trustees is nonsense since in last week's school board elections two incumbents were voted out and four seats in all will be filled with new people. The community was able to take care of matters itself, she said. It did not need its elected board replaced with an appointed board from the state.
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