Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy on our About page and give us feedback.
Texas school districts on the brink of a state takeover should not have to face the same fate as Houston ISD, which has seen high teacher turnover and an exodus of students while under state control, said Alejandro Delgado, a former Texas Education Agency official and current Austin ISD parent, during a Texas Tribune and Austin Current event on Wednesday.
“It worries me, the loss of community trust,” Delgado said, referencing Houston. “There was a failed bond in HISD .. and that’s air conditioners for kids … There has to be another way in Austin.”
Austin ISD is the latest in a string of districts to face the threat of state intervention as TEA weighs a state takeover after two of their campuses received five consecutive failing accountability scores. The Houston district has been in a takeover since in 2023 for the same reason, one that state lawmakers are calling to be the blueprint for other troubled districts.
But panelists at the event Wednesday said the state’s takeover has harmed Houston ISD.
Dani Hernandez, who sits on the elected board in Houston and has no decision-making power during the takeover, urged Austin community members to rally to sway the state’s pick for their district leaders.
“You need to have a leader that’s willing to listen,” Hernandez said. “Try to influence who is going to run the school district.”
Hernandez worried the gains in test scores HISD has seen since the takeover doesn’t reflect long-term learning. She said the regimented class schedule state-appointed leaders have implemented might make children perform well on a test, but anxious to come to school.
Three years into its state takeover under a state-appointed superintendent, Houston ISD has also seen a mass exodus of families and teachers. Houston leaders have since leaned on teachers with fewer certifications and experiences, counting on standardized curricula and coaching to help them teach. And when students switch districts, that threatens to disrupt their educational trajectory, said Toni Templeton, a research scientist at the University of Houston Education Research Center.
“With Houston, we had lots of parents and students leave, and teachers leave, and principals leave, and leave, leave, leave, leave,” Templeton said. “But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Delgado, who left the TEA early this year, said he was heartbroken that Austin ISD had gotten to this point where intervention is on the table.
“The school district just recently published a school improvement dashboard. Awesome tool. Five years too late,” said Delgado, who graduated from Austin schools. “And I think we need to be honest about where we’re at, where we’ve been, and the reality that we have 31 D and F rated schools.”