I sat in on a Houston Independent School District (HISD) board meeting, and it has been an eye-opening experience.
I always stayed away from HISD. I don’t have kids, and while I knew there were problems with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) takeover, I didn’t know half of it. Some of the stories I’ve heard in that room have brought me to tears.
It started with the push for vouchers, public money to move kids out of public schools and into private ones. Early reports show those vouchers going to families who could already afford private school, not to the students who need help most.
Libraries were pulled out of schools that serve mostly low-income students, the very students who need them most.
Then came the New Education System (NES), which cut critical courses and replaced them with worksheets and test prep. Students who struggled weren’t helped; they were left behind. First graders came home with 20 worksheets for homework on the first day of school. Parents reported that their students are no longer reading books but rather excerpts from books.
Special education plans have been gutted. Students are being denied the IEPs they are legally entitled to.
Students told the board their friends can’t get free lunch because a form wasn’t filled out. How do you let a child go hungry over paperwork?
One student said she was pulled out of a class with her friends and placed in a class of all minority students. She is a student of color.
Students in Gifted and Talented programs, kids on track for college, some for the Ivy League, are being moved into vocational tracks for woodworking and welding. High schoolers have been taken out of advanced math and dropped into remedial math through a loophole that inflates ratings.
Now schools are closing, disproportionately in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. And they want to sell the properties.
I listen to all of this and feel despair. Where did it all go wrong? We are failing our students. Our super neighborhood is now looking hard for ways to close these gaps, because our future depends on it. But we are only a volunteer organization, and we shouldn’t have to worry about students’ ability to read.
Showing up means going to these meetings even though I don’t have kids. It means doing what I can. It means being on the right side of history.
Education is one of the foundations of a prosperous future and long-term success. And here we are, watching it crumble.
I can’t sleep at night doing nothing. Watching these students suffer is too much.
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