Houston Schools - not just a money problem

Houston Schools – not just a money problem

A couple of years ago, the state threatened to take over the Houston Independent School District (HISD). I thought that HISD leadership got the message, but now I hear that there may be a very large budget deficit. Some estimates are up to $215 million dollars. This gets my attention because more than half of my property tax is going to HISD. Digging deeper, I find that HISD enrollment has decreased by more than 20,000 students since 2020. Some of that may be due to failures of the City of Houston with high crime rates, bad roads, and poor services that drive people from the city to the suburbs. Isn’t it about time for serious changes? At least we need some honest debates to start.

So, what about the educational performance and results? I found an analysis of HISD by US News and World Report that was conducted before the pandemic. The pandemic response was terrible but leave that for another time. The pre-pandemic results were troubling. Testing data showed that for the elementary students, 60% are below proficiency in reading and 55% are below in math. It is worse in the middle schools with 62% below proficiency in reading and 57% below in math. It looks like improvement for High Schools (substandard: 49% for reading, 48% for math) but these improvements are potentially skewed by a high number of dropouts. In 2018, the self-reported dropout rate was 19% and then 15.8% in 2019. This looks like a failing grade for HISD with these numbers.

HISD has 27,000 employees with only 41% of them classroom teachers. Even after adding in principals and other in-school workers, there is more that 40% of the employees that are administration. That seems like a very high number for administration and support functions; by the way, the 231 police officers are not included in this number. HISD is the one of the largest employers in the county. Who else thinks that HISD is long overdue for a hard evaluation of their organizational structure?

Anecdotes from schools suggest deep troubles. Certainly, there are many good schools, but they are not the majority. It doesn’t take much searching to discover unacceptable levels of disruptive and violent behavior in classrooms and on campus. HISD administration has not found a way to deal with such behaviors. CRT topics taught to maintain racial angst are still reported. Excessive, militant-inspired environmentalism masquerades as science all too often. Transgender affirmations are quietly practiced in many places and seem commonplace. Parents are not informed even when students secretly change at school to be transgender there, but not at home. Wait until those lawsuits from angry parents hit HISD, the budget deficit will balloon after a large number of multimillion dollar suits are lost.

What does it all mean? Big changes are needed. It is too late for small tweaks and nudges. Most of the HISD hierarchy are obviously not up for the challenge and have to go. Disruptive students must be kept from the students who want to learn even if mass expulsions are required. That won’t help the headcount that sets the budget, but harming good students for money is not acceptable. Make classrooms safe for teachers and students. After that, pay teachers more and eliminate the bloated administration to free up that money. Implement total financial transparency by making all contracts and all spending fully open to the public. Bring back focus on the fundamentals (reading, writing, math, geography, science) and stop the political grooming in the classrooms. These radical ideas may seem out of reach but if the legislature mandates school choice, much greater challenges instantly will be thrust upon HISD. Let’s end the denial, accept the need for massive changes, and start some real debate.