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BONUS: The Takeover of Houston ISD w/ Karina Quesada-León
6 Plays1 year ago
What you just heard were public comments from three community members of Houston Independent School District, the largest school district in Texas, at the center of a controversial state takeover by the Texas Education Agency. The bell you hear in the audio is a hard cut-off for speakers, whose mics were immediately turned off. After working its way through the legal system for several years, last winter, the Texas Supreme Court greenlit the replacement of district superintendent and the locally elected board of trustees by the head of the TEA, appointed directly by the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, himself. And last month, school was back in session under the newly appointed superintendent, Mike Miles - former US State Department ambassador, charter school CEO, and Dallas ISD superintendent - amid dozens of pedagogical and policy changes that left teachers, parents, and students confused, frustrated, and afraid, as heard in the public comment at the beginning of this episode.
The takeover of Houston ISD sits at the intersection of so many issues impacting American education today - democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarianism, the so-called parents’ rights movement, testing & accountability measures, poverty, race, and charter schools. On Friday, September 15th, the morning after another heated board meeting in Houston, I spoke with Karina Quesada-Leon, an Houston ISD parent, activist, and former teacher who has been intensely involved in HISD for a decade, and she was generous to speak with me for an hour about the recent history of the majority Hispanic/Latino district, the impact of the takeover on teachers, families, & students, and how they are experiencing the New Educational System of Superintendent Mike Miles, and what’s next for the movement opposed to these reactionary changes.
We are generally not a current-events podcast, but because this is a fast-moving story, we wanted to release it to listeners as soon and as lightly edited as possible. You can also find an overview of the story on our YouTube channel by searching Human Restoration Project. We hope to follow up with Karina and other affected teachers, parents, and students at Houston ISD. If you’d like to reach out to me directly, you can do so by emailing nick@humanrestorationproject.org. And of course you can always find more of our work and support us @ humanrestorationproject.org
Video: The Houston ISD Takeover Punishes Poverty & Subverts Democracy
Twitter: Houston Education Association
Twitter: Karina Quesada-Leon
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Transcript
Introduction and Teacher Concerns
00:00:00
Speaker
Howdy y'all, my name is Charles Cruz here at AWS Not Like Ted.
00:00:04
Speaker
I am a retired chemical engineer at an early age because I learned very well from a very good school.
00:00:10
Speaker
Unfortunately, I wasn't HISD, but I value public education and I'm here to speak on behalf of folks that couldn't be here today.
00:00:18
Speaker
I'm from Baytown, Texas.
00:00:19
Speaker
These are the words of teachers who could not be here either because of mandatory NES faculty meetings on Thursdays or because they are too afraid.
00:00:27
Speaker
Teachers report that Amplify and Eureka lessons are full of mistakes, especially in math.
00:00:32
Speaker
Chemical engineer.
00:00:33
Speaker
A veteran teacher reports children are falling asleep on her for the first time ever.
00:00:38
Speaker
One teacher says she is tired of feeling like a robot and her children are not learning.
00:00:42
Speaker
A pre-K teacher has been told to keep lights on during nap time.
00:00:46
Speaker
A kinder teacher is scared to sit down even briefly.
Parent and Teacher Expectations
00:00:50
Speaker
Teachers describe the situation as a mess, a nightmare, and talk about leaving mid-year.
00:00:55
Speaker
There's a reason we have democratically elected representatives.
00:00:58
Speaker
Y'all ain't it.
00:00:59
Speaker
Good evening.
00:01:01
Speaker
I'm an HISD parent and a longtime taxpayer, not in front of my democratically elected school board.
00:01:08
Speaker
I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of a teacher who, like many others, cannot be here because of their duties and their fear of retribution.
00:01:15
Speaker
That teacher says this, For the last three weeks, everyone at my school has been told to use multiple response strategies every four minutes.
00:01:25
Speaker
This includes all advanced placement classes.
00:01:29
Speaker
Sometimes a single AP question can take more than 10 minutes to read.
00:01:33
Speaker
The district mandated pacing and use of an MRS every four minutes leaves no time for assignments with any depth or complexity.
00:01:43
Speaker
Usually three weeks into school, I'm getting to know my students strengths, weaknesses, and writing abilities, but not this year.
00:01:50
Speaker
Secondly, the districts that...
00:01:52
Speaker
Unrealistic teacher expectations for AP tests with 80% passing rates when many national passing rates
State Takeover of Houston ISD
00:02:00
Speaker
are not even 45%.
00:02:00
Speaker
As a parent, I'm appalled by... But for the last week, I've had a kid that cries every morning...
00:02:08
Speaker
and every evening, crying not to go to school and begging not to go in the morning.
00:02:15
Speaker
She says school's boring, she's not learning, and she would rather be homeschooled at this point, which is really the opposite of what you guys are trying to do, which is keep kids in the district.
00:02:25
Speaker
She's miserable.
00:02:26
Speaker
Her confidence is plummeting and she's starting to lose her joy for learning, which is the opposite of what we want with learners, right?
00:02:34
Speaker
She's a student at a non-NES school, it's not an NESA school, but she's still subjected to this curriculum that is just disengaging, aggressive, and honestly, it's drill and kill.
00:02:45
Speaker
Let's be honest.
00:02:47
Speaker
She's already doubting her ability to learn, and it's all thanks to this method.
00:02:53
Speaker
So this DOI plan gives the superintendent unbridled access to change
Activist Response and Community Impact
00:03:00
Speaker
district procedures and standards at his whim.
00:03:04
Speaker
It allows Mike Miles, who utterly failed at being superintendent in Dallas ISD, the ability to circumvent the laws that are meant to protect our kids.
00:03:15
Speaker
It gives him, whose only experience in education prior to being a superintendent was running a consulting service for charter schools.
00:03:25
Speaker
Shocking.
00:03:27
Speaker
And all it does is give him the ability to continue to enforce this military-style structure.
00:03:35
Speaker
We know why, because he was in the military.
00:03:38
Speaker
Mike Miles' resume is riddled with scandal.
00:03:41
Speaker
Thank you, ma'am.
00:03:46
Speaker
What you just heard in the intro were public comments from three community members of Houston Independent School District, the largest school district in Texas, and at the center of a controversial state takeover by the Texas Education Agency.
00:03:59
Speaker
The bell you hear in the audio is a hard cutoff for speakers whose mics were immediately turned off.
00:04:05
Speaker
After working its way through the legal system for several years, last winter the Texas Supreme Court green-lit the replacement of District Superintendent and the locally elected School Board of Trustees by the head of the TEA, appointed directly by the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott himself.
00:04:21
Speaker
And last month, school was back in session under the newly appointed superintendent, Mike Miles, former U.S. State Department ambassador, charter school CEO, and Dallas ISD superintendent, amid dozens of pedagogical and policy changes that left teachers, parents, and students confused, frustrated, and afraid, as you just heard in the public comment from community members.
00:04:45
Speaker
The takeover of Houston ISD sits at the intersection of so many issues impacting American education today.
00:04:51
Speaker
Democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarianism, the so-called parents' rights movement, testing and accountability measures as they relate to poverty, race, and charter schools.
00:05:03
Speaker
On Friday, September 15th, the morning after another heated board meeting in Houston, I spoke with Carina Quesada-Leon.
00:05:10
Speaker
a Houston ISD parent, activist, and former teacher who has been intensely involved in HISD for a decade.
00:05:17
Speaker
And she was generous to speak with me for an hour about the recent history of the majority Hispanic Latino district, the impact of the takeover on teachers, families, and students, how they're experiencing the new educational system of Superintendent Mike Miles, and what's next for the movement opposed to these reactionary changes.
00:05:36
Speaker
We're generally not a current events podcast, but because this is a fast-moving story, we wanted to release it to listeners as soon and as lightly edited as possible.
00:05:45
Speaker
You can also find an overview of the story on our YouTube channel by searching Human Restoration Project.
Personal Experiences and Educational Impacts
00:05:50
Speaker
We hope to follow up with Karina and other affected teachers, parents, and students at Houston ISD.
00:05:56
Speaker
If you'd like to reach out to me directly, you can do so by emailing nick at humanrestorationproject.org.
00:06:02
Speaker
And of course, you can always find more of our work and support us at humanrestorationproject.org.
00:06:17
Speaker
I am Karina Quesada and I have three kids in HISD.
00:06:21
Speaker
I used to teach.
00:06:23
Speaker
I taught for about 10 years in Pasadena ISD.
00:06:27
Speaker
I'm now a stay-at-home mom, but a lot of times I'm not at home.
00:06:31
Speaker
I'm actually more of an advocate and an activist.
00:06:35
Speaker
I just don't do it as a paid job.
00:06:37
Speaker
So I'll...
00:06:39
Speaker
Sometimes I go into schools with people, with parents, meeting with principals or having a special education meeting or things like that.
00:06:47
Speaker
I speak Spanish.
00:06:48
Speaker
So our community is always not provided accurate information many times or provided information.
00:06:57
Speaker
So it's a big need.
00:07:01
Speaker
And so I do that when I can.
00:07:04
Speaker
2013 it started, not here in the district.
00:07:07
Speaker
It started with Mike Miles in Dallas, Mike Morales.
00:07:10
Speaker
The TEA commissioner was a trustee in Dallas and Mike Rawlings was the mayor of Dallas.
00:07:17
Speaker
They wanted to put in a home rule charter.
00:07:20
Speaker
They started funneling a lot of money into school board races, a bunch of billionaires.
00:07:24
Speaker
John Arnold was involved.
00:07:26
Speaker
And so what they wanted to do was become a home rule charter.
00:07:30
Speaker
They needed trustees that would vote
00:07:33
Speaker
to put themselves out of a job, right?
00:07:36
Speaker
And then to proceed with this Home Rule Charter, which would give
00:07:39
Speaker
these businessmen access to these schools where they could now charter them all off, right?
00:07:47
Speaker
And so it was going to be a big cash flow.
00:07:50
Speaker
That did not pass.
00:07:51
Speaker
Like it was like in January 2015 that it didn't pass.
00:07:55
Speaker
But by the summer during the ledge session, they pass
Charter Schools and Privatization Controversies
00:08:00
Speaker
HB 1842, which is what we call the takeover law.
00:08:04
Speaker
And also HB 1842,
00:08:08
Speaker
also has districts of innovation in it.
00:08:11
Speaker
It's part of that law.
00:08:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:14
Speaker
So that passed in 2015.
00:08:16
Speaker
And that is the, that is the law that says if a school has been failing for five years, once it starts, it has failed the state
00:08:26
Speaker
the state test for five years, then the school, the commissioner can do one of two things, either close that school down or take it over.
00:08:37
Speaker
It's important to note that the cut scores are
00:08:43
Speaker
What's going to be passing is decided after the administration of the test.
00:08:48
Speaker
So they back in and they always have at least 5% labeled failing schools.
00:08:54
Speaker
So it's a forced note.
00:08:58
Speaker
You can't ever have all the schools passing.
00:09:01
Speaker
So that was the pretense that they had used then to then my understanding is that the this was wrapped up in courts for a while.
00:09:10
Speaker
And it was sometime over the winter that then the Texas Supreme Court basically cleared the way for what I think the rest of us in the country saw in the spring.
00:09:19
Speaker
which was the announcement of the takeover with Mike Miles put in as this new superintendent and clearing house of this board of trustees stuff.
00:09:29
Speaker
So you're active well in advance of all of this.
00:09:33
Speaker
How does that world change for you then this spring when finally, in the minds of some, this takeover is happening?
00:09:41
Speaker
What does that mean for you and your work and your activism then?
00:09:45
Speaker
So real quick, real, real quick pause too.
00:09:48
Speaker
I just want to go back a little bit.
00:09:50
Speaker
So another law passed in 2017, it's SB 1888.
00:09:54
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:54
Speaker
And that allows for, let's say you have a school that's on year four of having failed, right?
00:10:02
Speaker
You can charter that school off.
00:10:06
Speaker
And that gets you off the ticket, right?
00:10:10
Speaker
That gives you a reprieve in the accountability.
00:10:13
Speaker
So if you charter off your schools, then they won't come and take you over.
00:10:17
Speaker
So in 2018,
Challenges in Community Representation
00:10:20
Speaker
we had 10 schools on the chopping block before they were going to be chartered off.
00:10:25
Speaker
The community spoke out.
00:10:27
Speaker
We made national headlines because people got dragged out of the meeting, got taken to prison, things like that.
00:10:35
Speaker
We did not charter off those 10 schools.
00:10:36
Speaker
We did not do so because 1842, the takeover law in 1888 were working in conjunction to privatize.
00:10:45
Speaker
Right.
00:10:46
Speaker
So instead of the state coming and do it, the districts themselves were like, here are our schools.
00:10:51
Speaker
Right.
00:10:51
Speaker
They were chartering them off themselves.
00:10:53
Speaker
We didn't do that.
00:10:55
Speaker
So then in 2019, the state's like, we're going to take you over.
00:10:58
Speaker
They file a lawsuit.
00:10:59
Speaker
There's an injunction.
00:11:00
Speaker
They can't get it taken over.
00:11:02
Speaker
Then a senator, Benincourt, files 1365, which is basically allows for retroactive stuff and for the school for that to bypass that injunction and circumvent the courts.
00:11:15
Speaker
and allow for the takeover.
00:11:18
Speaker
And that's how we got to where we are.
00:11:20
Speaker
And I would like to make a point that all of these laws were bipartisan support.
00:11:26
Speaker
That's important to note because people think it's a Republican and Democrat thing.
00:11:33
Speaker
And yes, it's more Republicans, but we also have some staunch Republicans in rural areas that are very pro-public ed and are not with this.
00:11:43
Speaker
And when you say chartered off, is there a particular charter management company that then these get passed to?
00:11:50
Speaker
Or what does that look like then for getting chartered off when your school becomes part of that?
00:11:55
Speaker
So they made the language really enticing.
00:11:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:59
Speaker
partnerships and you can partner up with a nonprofit.
00:12:03
Speaker
So let's say like, um, like a university wanted to take you on or something.
00:12:10
Speaker
Um, then, you know, the language made it sound to people not really paying attention.
00:12:14
Speaker
Like, well, it can't be that bad.
00:12:16
Speaker
It's an education system sort of thing.
00:12:18
Speaker
That's taking it over.
00:12:19
Speaker
It's, it's fine.
Legal Manipulations and District Alignment
00:12:21
Speaker
But that's not who was going to take the schools.
00:12:23
Speaker
Who was going to take our schools is this charter organization that is shady.
00:12:29
Speaker
I don't know why this woman still has all these schools.
00:12:31
Speaker
There's a lot of fraud going on there.
00:12:35
Speaker
What's the company or who's the person?
00:12:37
Speaker
Lois Bullock.
00:12:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:40
Speaker
Oh my gosh.
00:12:41
Speaker
I still remember it was one night, 2 a.m.
00:12:43
Speaker
I'm like geeking out, looking up stuff about her because I just figured out that that's where the schools, they were wanting to charter them because they were keeping it a secret who they wanted to order off the schools to.
00:12:54
Speaker
And I find that she has a private company that's making money off of it.
00:13:00
Speaker
So the private company was holding,
00:13:04
Speaker
the land, right?
00:13:06
Speaker
And then she had these different charter school operations and she would charge herself rent.
00:13:11
Speaker
And she'd also pay herself for her services and pay herself as an employee at all these different schools.
00:13:18
Speaker
Sometimes she'd have two schools
Ongoing Resistance and Call to Action
00:13:20
Speaker
co-locating in the same building and would charge them both rent.
00:13:24
Speaker
And she'd give charge herself, um, uh, like her salary as well.
00:13:29
Speaker
She's a millionaire.
00:13:31
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:31
Speaker
And this is, I just Googled, is it like Energized for Excellence Academy Inc.?
00:13:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:37
Speaker
And yes, yes.
00:13:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:39
Speaker
There are a lot of articles about this.
00:13:42
Speaker
What is Energized Contract is a noxious corrupt weed energized to exploit.
00:13:47
Speaker
So it seems like, yeah, there is a lot of interesting.
00:13:52
Speaker
And that, to me, from my perspective, that's just baked into it.
00:13:55
Speaker
Anytime that you're
00:13:56
Speaker
in the business of privatizing, of course, people are going to be looking to take a slice off the top or try to figure out a way to funnel more funds.
00:14:03
Speaker
You know, those stories are everywhere.
00:14:05
Speaker
So it's wild that more people weren't hip to that.
00:14:10
Speaker
In my look at...
00:14:13
Speaker
I guess the takeover, the heated school board meetings, et cetera, this really seemed like something that is being done to parents.
00:14:21
Speaker
Of course, from what I can tell, you know, parents are willingly admitting that, of course, not everything is perfect, that some changes need to be made.
00:14:30
Speaker
This seemed like a bridge way too far, something done to parents and the community against their wishes.
00:14:36
Speaker
Is that a correct characterization, you know?
00:14:40
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:14:41
Speaker
I will be the full to say that our school district before the takeover had issues.
00:14:48
Speaker
Right.
00:14:48
Speaker
Major issues, major issues of inequality.
00:14:52
Speaker
And it's inequitable.
00:14:54
Speaker
Inequitable.
00:14:56
Speaker
The funds that are dedicated to some schools, like you have this...
00:15:00
Speaker
The one that I hate the most is the HSPVA, the one for the performing arts.
00:15:05
Speaker
And all this money goes to it.
00:15:07
Speaker
And they even, you know, kids audition to be into that school from the district.
00:15:11
Speaker
And then they won't take them.
00:15:12
Speaker
They'll take kids from another district before they take some of our kids.
00:15:16
Speaker
And then you have kids down this, schools down the street that don't have their basic needs met.
00:15:21
Speaker
They don't have basic things.
00:15:23
Speaker
And so I will be the first.
00:15:26
Speaker
But this...
00:15:28
Speaker
What they're doing now is just exasperating like the issues that were.
00:15:33
Speaker
And now it's like you have no recourse.
00:15:36
Speaker
There is no accountability.
00:15:38
Speaker
If you don't like something, what can we do?
00:15:42
Speaker
Before with the elected board, we can come in mass and we can say, we don't like this.
00:15:47
Speaker
We're upset.
00:15:48
Speaker
We're, you know, we don't like it.
00:15:50
Speaker
We don't like it.
00:15:50
Speaker
And that school board trustee, if she saw, he or she saw a lot of people that were in her district,
00:15:58
Speaker
their constituents, they might change their vote, right?
00:16:01
Speaker
Because at the end of the day, they need, they are going to run for reelection, right?
00:16:06
Speaker
So they're accountable to us.
00:16:09
Speaker
Now we don't, they're not accountable.
00:16:12
Speaker
The board of managers is not accountable to us.
00:16:15
Speaker
Mike Miles is not accountable to us.
00:16:17
Speaker
So when we go, it's like, nothing we say matters to them.
00:16:25
Speaker
Because of the way then that the takeover proceeded over the spring is that my understanding is that Mike Miles and the board of trustees are appointed by the governor.
00:16:35
Speaker
Is that a correct way to understand it?
00:16:37
Speaker
Or what's the process by which like the democratically elected people are out?
00:16:43
Speaker
And how does the new board who is not responsive and responsible to you all as Houston parents, how do they get put in charge then?
00:16:52
Speaker
So they were selected, hand selected by our commissioner of education, TA Commissioner Mike Marath, which by the way, that is an appointed position.
00:17:04
Speaker
He's been appointed by the governor.
00:17:06
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:06
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:07
Speaker
Well, at the end of the day, the big bosses are Mike Marath and his boss is Greg Abbott.
00:17:13
Speaker
Right.
00:17:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:15
Speaker
So, so it's, it's in a way,
00:17:18
Speaker
the appointment by the appointee of the governor.
00:17:22
Speaker
So like at the end of the day, you know, that pyramid doesn't go to you, the parents to decide the pyramid, the power goes up through the election committee or the education commissioner to the governor.
00:17:33
Speaker
So really from the ground floor in Houston, then through the state to the governor themselves directly.
00:17:41
Speaker
One of the things I think that is so bewildering to me, particularly in a state like Texas, I mean, I'm in Iowa, you know, where we've had our own conversations around parents' rights and all these other kinds of loaded phrases, you know.
00:17:57
Speaker
This seems like a total...
00:17:59
Speaker
contradiction to this emphasis and focus on parent rights.
00:18:04
Speaker
It really makes me think of, of course, like, well, who, when we say that phrase, parent rights, who do we mean?
00:18:10
Speaker
What parents are we talking about?
00:18:13
Speaker
This wouldn't happen in a white district in rural Iowa.
00:18:16
Speaker
You know what I'm saying?
00:18:18
Speaker
What's your perspective on that?
00:18:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:20
Speaker
Parents' rights only apply to
00:18:23
Speaker
To white people, right?
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:25
Speaker
It doesn't apply to Latinos and Blacks and minorities.
00:18:29
Speaker
That doesn't apply to us, which interestingly enough, you know, there was all this rhetoric and talk about parents' rights.
00:18:38
Speaker
And I was like, we already have that.
00:18:40
Speaker
Like, if some of you people bothered to inform yourself just a little bit, like,
00:18:47
Speaker
you would know that you have the right to visit your child's classroom.
00:18:51
Speaker
You have the right to look at the curriculum.
00:18:53
Speaker
Like, that already exists, but it was a political talking point that works well for people that don't really know but want to force their views and their opinions on everyone else, right?
00:19:08
Speaker
Like, if there's a book there that I don't like, I don't want my kids to read, fine,
00:19:14
Speaker
I won't let them read it, but then that doesn't mean that I should, that, that, that means that I now can decide whether your kid gets to read it.
00:19:22
Speaker
Like that's not, no, my right doesn't extend to enforce my will onto other people.
00:19:30
Speaker
Now, I mean, it feels it seems like no parent has rights in Houston.
00:19:34
Speaker
Those have been subverted by, you know, this hostile takeover.
00:19:38
Speaker
So how has your experience as a parent and maybe their experience as students in the district between the end of last year, you know, kind of the last year of perhaps normalcy ahead of the takeover and really in the first couple of weeks of class then here in August and September?
00:19:59
Speaker
Well, they are, we are in what's called the Heights in Houston.
00:20:05
Speaker
And the area is predominantly white and it's, it's affluent.
00:20:12
Speaker
So it was signaled very early on that basically these schools would not be touched.
00:20:18
Speaker
However...
00:20:20
Speaker
There are changes going on in the schools.
00:20:23
Speaker
My daughter has told me that the first day of school, she's in middle school, they weren't allowed to have getting to know you activities.
00:20:29
Speaker
They weren't allowed to get to know their teachers and their teachers weren't allowed to get to know them.
00:20:34
Speaker
They have timers and they have to get the pacing is really, really quick.
00:20:41
Speaker
And she is not happy about it.
00:20:44
Speaker
She does understand that this isn't coming from her teachers and it's not coming from her principal.
00:20:52
Speaker
But she's, you know, she still doesn't like it.
00:20:54
Speaker
And she's getting walkthroughs all the time.
00:20:56
Speaker
The principals are constantly in the classroom, constantly.
00:21:00
Speaker
It's just a system of surveillance.
00:21:03
Speaker
She I have a niece and a nephew in a also none of my kids are in an NES school, right, or NES aligned.
00:21:12
Speaker
My niece and nephew, we thought they were also not in an NES school, but that school is what, as like an NES supported school.
00:21:22
Speaker
So it's off the record, off the books, but all the horrible stuff is going on there.
00:21:28
Speaker
And just for listeners real quick to pause, who might not be familiar again with that NES label for the schools.
00:21:34
Speaker
I know it's so, it's so hard.
00:21:36
Speaker
What, what does that mean?
00:21:37
Speaker
And what, what does that look like on the ground for those schools?
00:21:40
Speaker
That is Mike Miles.
00:21:41
Speaker
That's what he called the 28 schools is new education system.
00:21:47
Speaker
And the education system consists of four minute timers where you do demonstrations of learning.
00:21:53
Speaker
You do multiple response strategies where kids have to stop.
00:21:57
Speaker
The teacher has to stop every four minutes, whatever it is that she's teaching.
00:22:03
Speaker
and do some work and write on index cards that like teachers joke that they should have bought stock in with the index card companies because they're going through so many of them um so there's the nes schools oh and their libraries were removed and they're well not the physical library but books were taken out they've left some books maybe here or there and but and the but
00:22:28
Speaker
And the bookshelves are like facing against the walls.
00:22:32
Speaker
And now those are teams.
00:22:33
Speaker
They're called team centers, which is really a detention center.
00:22:37
Speaker
So if a child acts up, they get sent into this room that used to be the library.
00:22:44
Speaker
But also another thing that I found out is that, let's say your nine-year-old.
00:22:50
Speaker
you know, gets removed from the class.
00:22:51
Speaker
So now they got, they have to go into the library where they have their computer and they will get to zoom in and watch the class.
00:22:59
Speaker
Right.
00:23:00
Speaker
But not only that, so your, their image is now blasted in their classroom on a wall.
00:23:08
Speaker
So they're projected into the class as well through the Zoom.
00:23:12
Speaker
Yes.
00:23:13
Speaker
Oh.
00:23:13
Speaker
Yes.
00:23:14
Speaker
And so not only was there a spectacle of like, you got to go to the Zoom room, you get Zoomed back in.
00:23:21
Speaker
So we're all still very cognizant of the fact that little Jimmy over here misbehaved or for whatever reason had to leave.
00:23:29
Speaker
Oh, and you can't tell if you're being projected on the wall.
00:23:32
Speaker
You can't tell what the reaction is or what people are saying about you or anything else in the room.
00:23:37
Speaker
And the NES...
00:23:39
Speaker
schools are also the same thing, except the only differences there is the NES schools had to have the teachers all got let go.
00:23:49
Speaker
They had to reapply for their jobs.
00:23:51
Speaker
The NES, the line, those are the ones that their principals, um, volunteered and
00:23:58
Speaker
volunteered because teachers have, principals have been removed from their positions that were resistant.
00:24:04
Speaker
So there are some volunteer schools that are now NES aligned and those, they didn't have to reapply for the jobs.
00:24:13
Speaker
The teachers didn't have to do that, but they do have the Zoom rooms as well.
00:24:17
Speaker
So, and the teachers don't have the added pay.
00:24:20
Speaker
So the, apparently the NES schools had extra pay, which also is a point of contention because
00:24:26
Speaker
What they were advertised as what they were going to get paid is not in actuality what they're getting paid.
00:24:32
Speaker
Am I right to understand then that basically there's like two tiers of schools within Houston ISD then?
00:24:40
Speaker
Because there would be the non-NES ones, which are, is it just business as usual?
00:24:45
Speaker
And then the NES ones?
00:24:46
Speaker
Okay, three.
00:24:47
Speaker
Because then you've got the, okay.
00:24:50
Speaker
NES aligned, the secret NES supported, and the non-NES.
00:24:54
Speaker
Oh, Lord.
00:24:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:24:56
Speaker
And it's just kind of, my guess is that those are probably based on like socioeconomic, you know, demographic breakdowns.
00:25:04
Speaker
I would guess that the more affluent whiter schools are probably on the less restricted side.
00:25:10
Speaker
And then the non-white lower socioeconomic schools are probably closer to the more, I don't know, it's like a prison style model almost based on what I can tell, honestly.
00:25:21
Speaker
Um,
00:25:22
Speaker
And yeah, have you gotten feedback at all from, have you heard anything else from other parents or other students and people about just how these first couple weeks have gone?
00:25:32
Speaker
I've read the posts and I guess horror stories.
00:25:35
Speaker
What have you heard on the ground?
00:25:37
Speaker
Well, this past week, just yesterday when we were at the school board meeting, I found out about the secret NES supported thing because I found out through my sister-in-law, who has two children that just started.
00:25:54
Speaker
They had been homeschooled this whole time, and they were so excited.
00:25:59
Speaker
They're going into third grade, eight-year-old little twins.
00:26:03
Speaker
They were so excited to go to school.
00:26:05
Speaker
They were just so joyous and excited.
00:26:07
Speaker
And now...
00:26:08
Speaker
They are sad, crying, frustrated, feeling dumb and down about themselves, upset.
00:26:17
Speaker
And she's found out that this is what they're doing, the NES, basically the NES curriculum and following all of this stuff, but they still have their libraries, you know?
00:26:28
Speaker
And so that's how she found out.
00:26:30
Speaker
But the curriculum and the bad treatment, right, that is...
00:26:37
Speaker
coming from the top and it has to be doled down, right?
00:26:40
Speaker
Like it's just, um, and so it's just her, her children are English.
00:26:46
Speaker
They're emerging bilingual.
00:26:48
Speaker
So they're stronger actually in Spanish.
00:26:51
Speaker
Um, they're not getting, they're in a dual language school.
00:26:53
Speaker
They're not getting enough, a lot of the Spanish support that they need.
00:26:58
Speaker
And so I found out about that just this week when she got called into a conference because her
00:27:05
Speaker
Children were not completing the work in time.
00:27:08
Speaker
And so, you know, they're really upset because, you know, they try very hard to finish it and some kids finish it and some kids don't.
00:27:16
Speaker
And, you know, one of my nephews said, I wish I could do it, but I can't.
00:27:20
Speaker
And that makes me so sad for him.
00:27:23
Speaker
It's upsetting.
00:27:25
Speaker
And so he says that he, it's very distracting because a lot of people keep always coming into their, into his classroom.
00:27:32
Speaker
and he can't concentrate.
00:27:35
Speaker
Um, and he doesn't have enough Spanish, he says.
00:27:37
Speaker
And so it's really, um, it's really hard and he doesn't like it.
00:27:41
Speaker
He doesn't like his school.
00:27:44
Speaker
Um, and so, but other parents at this board meeting and children were talking last night and, and, and, uh, teachers too.
00:27:54
Speaker
There was a couple of teachers and then there was, um,
00:27:57
Speaker
There were parents that volunteered to speak for teachers who wanted to remain anonymous.
00:28:03
Speaker
So the teacher would write something in and we had people volunteering to read out what the teachers who wanted to remain anonymous were saying.
00:28:13
Speaker
At the end of this meeting, had over 50 people, children included.
00:28:18
Speaker
Oh, and by the way, they were cutting the mic on the children.
00:28:22
Speaker
They were given only a minute.
00:28:25
Speaker
We were all given only a minute.
00:28:26
Speaker
Historically, the elected board never would cut the mic on kids.
00:28:30
Speaker
The kids get nervous.
00:28:31
Speaker
You start stuttering and stammering and you can't get out what you want to say.
00:28:35
Speaker
It's hard.
00:28:36
Speaker
Public speaking is hard for adults.
00:28:39
Speaker
Imagine a child.
00:28:41
Speaker
My little girl is very shy, but she was compelled when she heard her
00:28:47
Speaker
cousins were upset after seeing how happy they were.
00:28:50
Speaker
She's, she was so nervous.
00:28:52
Speaker
She's like, but I want to, I want to do it.
00:28:54
Speaker
She had never gone to a board meeting.
00:28:56
Speaker
I live there and she had never gone to a board meeting, but she was compelled and her mic got cut.
00:29:02
Speaker
Then there were other children whose mics got cut.
00:29:05
Speaker
And then at the end of this meeting, Mike Miles said that that day, today we, the board, the board of managers, we toured, I think he said like 10 schools and saw what, what,
00:29:17
Speaker
We saw what things are actually like on the ground.
00:29:20
Speaker
We saw what the reality is, not what is being said here.
00:29:24
Speaker
So called the children, the teachers, the parents, we're all living in an alternate reality and liars.
00:29:32
Speaker
So it's really, really frustrating, the gaslighting that takes place.
00:29:37
Speaker
Real quick, the other thing that happened last night was the vote on the District of Innovation.
00:29:43
Speaker
I was a district advisory committee member.
00:29:47
Speaker
So the way that used to work was, so you have your elected members of the DAC who are teachers, teachers and staff.
00:29:56
Speaker
They have elections.
00:29:57
Speaker
They get elected.
00:29:59
Speaker
Community members, parents, and business people, they get appointed.
00:30:03
Speaker
They're appointed by the elected board.
00:30:07
Speaker
So, you know, people run for office.
00:30:10
Speaker
You know, they tell you what their vision, their values are.
00:30:14
Speaker
You vote on that person.
00:30:15
Speaker
That person gets elected, right, by the majority of people who believed in their vision and their plan for schools.
00:30:22
Speaker
That person then turns around and appoints two people per their district to be on the deck so that the community still has a voice and is present in this deck.
00:30:37
Speaker
The DAC is only an advisory role, right?
00:30:40
Speaker
You don't have any power.
00:30:42
Speaker
They present like the, you know, the professional development plan, you know, the student handbook.
00:30:48
Speaker
We look at it.
00:30:49
Speaker
We give feedback.
00:30:51
Speaker
Feedback is usually not taken too much seriously.
00:30:55
Speaker
So again, no power except for in 2015 with the passing of HB 1842 that has districts of innovation in statute.
00:31:06
Speaker
It says that
00:31:09
Speaker
One of the ways to be, the only way for the board to become a district of innovation is first the DAC, the district advisory committee has to vote yes.
00:31:21
Speaker
Like a majority vote yes on the DOI, the district of innovation plan that is presented.
00:31:27
Speaker
And once the DAC, the district advisory committee votes yes, then that plan can go before the board and the board will,
00:31:35
Speaker
can then vote on it.
00:31:37
Speaker
And it has to have a two thirds majority vote in order to then become, accept the plan and become a district advisory committee.
00:31:44
Speaker
The reason that there is a clause that says that the district advisory committee has to approve it first is because the district of innovation gives you exemptions to 67, um,
00:31:59
Speaker
67 things from the Texas Education Code.
00:32:02
Speaker
So you get to exempt yourself from having to have certified teachers, from classroom sizes, from notifying parents that they're being taught by uncertified teacher that the class size is huge.
00:32:14
Speaker
You don't have to do duty-free lunches for teachers, conference periods, planning periods, meetings.
00:32:22
Speaker
things like their contracts, the school year.
00:32:26
Speaker
It's 67 different things.
00:32:28
Speaker
It's a big amount of things, of having to make school improvement plans, of even having a district advisory committee.
00:32:36
Speaker
You can exempt yourself from that, of having campus-based school decision-making bodies.
00:32:44
Speaker
You don't have to have them.
00:32:45
Speaker
You can exempt yourself from a lot of stuff.
00:32:47
Speaker
So because you're
00:32:49
Speaker
because district innovation allows the district to exempt itself from so many state laws and that provide protections and rights to teachers, students, and parents.
00:33:02
Speaker
It needed some checks and balances, some guardrails for not giving too much power to a superintendent and a board when you're going to exempt yourself from state law, right?
00:33:13
Speaker
Let's have a voice for the community.
00:33:16
Speaker
Let's have them have a vote.
00:33:17
Speaker
What do they think?
00:33:18
Speaker
What do these teachers think that this very much affects them?
00:33:23
Speaker
What do the teachers think?
00:33:25
Speaker
What do the parents and community members think?
00:33:27
Speaker
And then if they give it a yes, then it goes off to the board of trustees, right?
00:33:36
Speaker
Well, this administration got ahead of it, changed the policy so that the superintendent could stack the DAC.
00:33:46
Speaker
I got a letter two days ago, finally got an email that my term was, I was dismissed and it was effective immediately.
00:33:57
Speaker
Of the new DAC, the DAC committee used to only be about 39 people.
00:34:02
Speaker
It is now consists of 60.
00:34:06
Speaker
18 of those people that were appointed, 18 of them had applied to be on the board of managers.
00:34:14
Speaker
All the people that voted no on district that were on that DAC, that voted no to District of Innovation in 2021, because it had come before our advisory committee.
00:34:28
Speaker
It had come before, and we voted no.
00:34:32
Speaker
Those of us that voted no, we got dismissed.
00:34:35
Speaker
The elected teachers, they're still there because they couldn't.
00:34:39
Speaker
But we were let go.
00:34:41
Speaker
There are at least three or four people that were on there, other parents, moms, that were very pro-takeover, very pro-districts of innovation.
00:34:51
Speaker
They're still there.
00:34:53
Speaker
They stacked the deck so they could get it done.
00:34:55
Speaker
So is that a done deal then as of the board meeting last night as far as some of those schools becoming, or I guess the district becoming district of innovation then?
00:35:03
Speaker
Is that a done thing or what's the next step for that?
00:35:07
Speaker
We're in the process of checking boxes, right?
00:35:09
Speaker
They're in the process of checking boxes.
00:35:11
Speaker
So they now named their committee, the planning committee for like what is the district of innovation plan?
00:35:19
Speaker
What's it going to look like, right?
00:35:20
Speaker
Are you going to check off all the exemptions or which exemptions are you going to claim, right?
00:35:26
Speaker
So yesterday was a public hearing on that.
00:35:29
Speaker
And so one of the things I, you know, it was...
00:35:32
Speaker
They told us on Monday that it was going to be on Thursday and then did it at 4 p.m.
00:35:37
Speaker
It's obvious you don't tell me without telling me that you don't want to hear what people want to think about this.
00:35:42
Speaker
And also tell us what exemptions other than a early start to the school year.
00:35:48
Speaker
There were no exemptions.
00:35:49
Speaker
So how can we provide like meaningful comment on something when we don't know, we don't have a clue as to what you plan on putting on there.
00:35:57
Speaker
So that was, they picked the
00:36:00
Speaker
This is something curious.
00:36:02
Speaker
They picked the people that are going to make this plan.
00:36:05
Speaker
One of the people they picked is they picked one of their own.
00:36:08
Speaker
So one of the board of managers is on the DOI, the District of Innovation Planning Committee as well.
00:36:19
Speaker
So it's pretty much just rubber stamping the process now.
00:36:22
Speaker
They know what they want and they're just going to check the boxes to make sure that they have all their legal ducks in a row and everything else.
00:36:28
Speaker
They probably have to have so many hearings and have to do everything else.
00:36:33
Speaker
All that is ready to go.
00:36:34
Speaker
Everything is ready.
00:36:35
Speaker
The plan just needs to be developed.
00:36:37
Speaker
Once it's developed, it goes before the DAC.
00:36:40
Speaker
The DAC has to vote it up or down.
00:36:41
Speaker
So as long as they've stacked it with enough people, it will pass.
00:36:45
Speaker
And then it'll go before the board.
00:36:47
Speaker
And they don't ever, they all vote in unison.
00:36:51
Speaker
They all say yes to whatever it is.
00:36:53
Speaker
You know, they gave him the contracts.
00:36:56
Speaker
They gave him a million dollar check.
00:36:57
Speaker
So anything less than a million dollars, he doesn't have to come to the board to ask.
00:37:02
Speaker
Before it was anything over a hundred thousand.
00:37:06
Speaker
Wow.
00:37:07
Speaker
Now they don't.
00:37:08
Speaker
Now he doesn't.
00:37:09
Speaker
Wow.
00:37:09
Speaker
It just seems like from start to finish, this whole process is just an end run around democracy, basically.
00:37:17
Speaker
Even the District of Innovation thing, you imagine those laws and policies were put in place by the state legislature, by appointed people at the TEA, et cetera.
00:37:29
Speaker
And now-
00:37:30
Speaker
You have an unelected, you know, appointed group at the local level who's going to basically throw those rules out and get to decide kind of how they want to proceed from there.
00:37:43
Speaker
Is there anything, I'm just thinking like, I know the situation's moving so fast.
00:37:47
Speaker
Is there anything that people are missing out on in the national picture?
00:37:53
Speaker
Is there something that needs to have more focus and attention paid to it?
00:37:57
Speaker
Or is it just...
00:37:59
Speaker
such an ongoing you know onslaught everyone's drinking out of a fire hose yeah it's just a constant like there's constantly something going on I heard today I don't know who they are I heard that six principals were removed yesterday okay is it I don't doubt it for one second who they are I don't know it's just a constant constant
00:38:27
Speaker
issue like and it's really it's really telling how discriminatory it is um so we're having like our
00:38:40
Speaker
black and brown communities going without libraries, um, being put in like basically jails.
00:38:46
Speaker
Our students are constant mass surveillance.
00:38:50
Speaker
Um, and, and you don't see the same thing happening in the more affluent schools.
00:38:57
Speaker
There's just a lot more, uh, freedom going on.
00:39:01
Speaker
They still have their libraries.
00:39:02
Speaker
They still have their librarians.
00:39:04
Speaker
Um,
00:39:05
Speaker
They're not getting there.
00:39:06
Speaker
They are apparently, I think, all getting walkthroughs, but they're not having the district walkthroughs come in every like every day.
00:39:14
Speaker
And so.
00:39:16
Speaker
It's I think it's a big issue of civil rights, right, and discrimination that's going on.
00:39:22
Speaker
We this is about this is about.
00:39:26
Speaker
A city that is predominantly Hispanic and black.
00:39:34
Speaker
Voting, not doing what the Texas Education Agency wants, right?
00:39:37
Speaker
We said no to chartering off 10 of our schools.
00:39:42
Speaker
And then we said no to becoming a district of innovation.
00:39:46
Speaker
And they said, that's enough of y'all.
00:39:48
Speaker
We've got it now.
00:39:49
Speaker
So we're going to start charting off schools, closing schools, and you will become a district of innovation.
00:39:54
Speaker
We will stack the DAC and you will become a district of innovation.
00:39:58
Speaker
So like you people, you people don't know how to govern yourselves.
00:40:04
Speaker
We're going to have to come in and do it for you, right?
00:40:06
Speaker
The black and the brown people can't govern themselves.
00:40:09
Speaker
They don't know.
00:40:10
Speaker
They don't know any better.
00:40:12
Speaker
Where does it go from here?
00:40:14
Speaker
What, I guess, is the next step for HISD, for parents like yourself, for people who are trying to resist?
00:40:23
Speaker
Where's the energy going?
00:40:25
Speaker
What's the next step?
00:40:27
Speaker
I think that's what we're trying to figure out, right?
00:40:29
Speaker
We're like sitting here trying to rack our brains of what to do.
00:40:35
Speaker
You know, previously, like we've had historically, like here in Houston, when it was time to desegregate the schools, Latinos, Hispanics were labeled as white.
00:40:45
Speaker
And so we're utilized to be,
00:40:48
Speaker
to mix in with with the black students and then say we desegregated and that was not the case like they were their schools were dilapidated and our schools were dilapidated so now we were just mixed in together in dilapidated schools um and still the school district was not uh desegregated so there was a movement by the mexican americans and mexicans and we started they started this is i believe in the 60s huelga schools
00:41:15
Speaker
So strike schools.
00:41:16
Speaker
So they pulled their kids out of school.
00:41:19
Speaker
However, something like that, I think would not work since we're trying to privatize and destroy public schools.
00:41:26
Speaker
I don't know if pulling our kids out of school is, is maybe plays right into it.
00:41:30
Speaker
But my point is, I think we need to figure out some type of direct action.
00:41:36
Speaker
We are going to the school board meetings and again, not for their benefit, but for everybody else and to get media attention and to continue putting that press
00:41:44
Speaker
and that pressure and shining a light on the darkness that, that is going on.
00:41:49
Speaker
Um, but I think it's going to take some type of, of direct action.
00:41:55
Speaker
What that action is, is we're trying to figure that out.
00:41:59
Speaker
And we don't, I believe have the infrastructure or like the systems in place because we're kind of, we're trying to come together because Houston is huge.
00:42:10
Speaker
Right.
00:42:10
Speaker
And we have a ton of schools like to be able to like,
00:42:15
Speaker
amass the amount of people that we might need to amass in order to affect change, it's going to take a little bit of time, I think.
00:42:25
Speaker
But I'm thinking it's probably going to take some type of radical direct action.
00:42:31
Speaker
Is there a place where people can just follow what's going on?
00:42:36
Speaker
I know that I've followed the Houston Education Association account on Twitter.
00:42:41
Speaker
That's been very effective.
00:42:43
Speaker
Are there other places you would recommend people, if they're listening to this, to either check out or if they're local, even in Houston or adjacent cities, to kind of see and follow what's going on?
00:42:53
Speaker
I would say Houston Community Schools for Public Education.
00:42:58
Speaker
It's an organization.
00:43:01
Speaker
I belong to it.
00:43:03
Speaker
So it's just community voices for public education.
00:43:08
Speaker
And it's just an organization.
00:43:09
Speaker
And we have a lot of information.
00:43:12
Speaker
They post on Instagram.
00:43:14
Speaker
They have a Facebook group.
00:43:15
Speaker
They have a website.
00:43:17
Speaker
Uh, they have a Twitter.
00:43:19
Speaker
We also do stuff like information on how to opt out of, of star testing.
00:43:23
Speaker
Like we don't, my children don't ever say, take the star test.
00:43:26
Speaker
Um, we completely opt out of it, including my 11th grade son.
00:43:30
Speaker
So we don't do it.
00:43:31
Speaker
Uh, that's another, that would be harder to do.
00:43:34
Speaker
I think because people are scared, but that would be another means is to just don't take the test.
00:43:38
Speaker
Don't give them the faulty data.
00:43:40
Speaker
Um, but I think, yep.
00:43:43
Speaker
But I think that's a hard ask for people.
00:43:46
Speaker
If they don't, especially if they're scared and they don't know, you know, what we do have trainings, we do help people.
00:43:53
Speaker
We, we know where the letters are.
00:43:55
Speaker
Another organization that, well, organization that does strictly with opting out is, um,
00:44:01
Speaker
Texas, Texans Against the Star or something like that.
00:44:05
Speaker
It's on Facebook.
00:44:06
Speaker
They do an amazing job, but it's not, that's Texas.
00:44:10
Speaker
Houston locally is a community voices for public education, provide a wealth of information, always a breakdown on what just happened and what is going on, even maybe have linked news stories, things like that.
00:44:24
Speaker
It's a great place to go.
00:44:25
Speaker
I just wanted to thank you so much, Karina, for joining me today.
00:44:29
Speaker
You're welcome.
00:44:33
Speaker
Thank you again for listening to Human Restoration Project's podcast.
00:44:36
Speaker
I hope this conversation leaves you inspired and ready to push the progressive envelope of education.
00:44:40
Speaker
You can learn more about progressive education, support our cause, and stay tuned to this podcast and other updates on our website at humanrestorationproject.org.