By Dr. Bobbie Eugene Mills
As a parent, taxpayer, business owner, community leader, or overall, just concerned citizen, we must be concerned about the takeover of the Largest school district in Texas. The largest district in Texas and the highest taxing entity on our tax roll. HISD has been the district of the Haves and Have Nots since its existence, but over time less and less funding has come from the great state of Texas, also known as the T.E.A. (Texas Education Agency). We can easily compare the T.E.A. to an absentee parent. They are aware of their responsibility, but choose not to take it seriously or assume the accountability for their own actions or lack thereof. e T.E.A. is charged with overseeing the progress, necessary improvements, funding, and overall oversight of our school district from the state level, but the state has not done too much of anything other than take our tax dollars and some for decades.
The taxpayer funds the Houston Independent School District, on average, We the People make approximately 90% of HISD’s budget and less than 10% normally comes from the state of Texas. Our district really should be independent because most of our funding comes from us. Not only do we take care of HISD, but we also take care of smaller districts and charter schools through our recapture payments since we are considered a property rich state even though our local schools are suffering financially. If we cannot pay teachers, for programs, keep schools open, pay staff, etc. why should we be sending anything back if it is needed here? If they really want our district to improve, allow us to keep our money, properly fund it, make trades an option just like college, and do away with standardized testing.
Teachers must be allowed to teach again for students to learn. The only thing the testing proves is that they do not mind wasting money on it. e price tag is almost $100,000,000 a year with a 5-year contract. Our schools in Texas can benefit from $500,000,000 over a 5-year span. e T.E.A. is to report to our Texas legislature who are supposed to insure equity, equality, transparency, accountability, and funding through meaningful legislation vs bad legislation like HB 1842 and SB 1882. The only thing that is going to save this District other than GOD himself is GOOD legislation written with plenty of common sense. e T.E.A. has authority over charter and public schools, the only difference is our tax bills say Houston Independent School District, but we are forced to take care of both. On April 24,2018, the largest protest in HISD history took place with the most registered speakers of any protest prior to its occurrence. The protest was called the Death of a School District. It was the first attempt at a T.E.A. takeover, but we stopped it.
