“Why don’t we fix these schools?” | Houston legislator backs amendment to allow TEA to absorb HISD

In 2015, Rep. Harold Dutton introduced an amendment that would require the school board to take over or close the school if the campus received failing grades for five consecutive years.

HOUSTON. The Texas Education Agency could take over Houston ISD at any time. One of the Houston legislators said that today there will be an important meeting on this issue.

State Representative Ron Reynolds said a key meeting will take place between Houston lawmakers and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath to talk about what’s next for HISD. Then he will contact the leaders of the districts.

As Houston lawmakers, educators and community leaders wait to hear from the Texas Education Agency about what’s next for a potential HISD takeover, one Houston Democratic MP says he doesn’t regret his amendment that made it possible.

“Absolutely not,” Rep. Harold W. Dutton of Houston said Tuesday, echoing comments first made in an article published Monday in the Houston Chronicle. “I live next door and I have to look at all these students. In particular, when you look at the students that get into our criminal justice system, they come from underperforming school zip codes, so why don’t we fix those schools?”

A state representative serving on the House Committee on Public Education said he was dismayed by the chronic underachievement in schools in his northeastern Houston district, noting at one point that a Kashmir high school had not had a certified math teacher in over 10 years.

Rep. Dutton said he amended the School Responsibility Bill of 2015, HB 1842, to give the HISD council “skin in the game” rather than just focus on wealthier schools on the West Side.

The amendment required a takeover by the school board or the closure of a school if a campus received unsatisfactory state accountability ratings for five consecutive years.

Rep. Dutton’s alma mater, Whitley High School, reached that milestone in 2019. Since then, her ratings have risen to C.

“I know there are people who say, ‘Wheatley is doing better,'” Rep. Dutton said. “Well, that’s true to some extent, but at the same time, Kashmir High School, which was technically a C, went back to a C.”

Even though county scores have improved and most HISD leadership has changed since 2019, Rep. Dutton believes HISD should still be held accountable for past failures.

“This amendment has affected every school district in the state, all 1,200 school districts, but in which one do you hear screaming?” Rep. Dutton said. “(He) is the one who didn’t fix the crumbling schools.”

Rep. Dutton told KHOU 11 that TEA Commissioner Mike Morath would be illegal to sit idle at this stage.

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