HISD teachers and parents speak out against possible TEA takeover in community forum

HOUSTON. The Houston NAACP and several local organizations held a public forum Monday to give the community an opportunity to voice their opposition to the Texas Education Agency taking over the Houston ISD.

Many speakers on the forum called this a hostile move and said that the takeover of TEA would harm students more than help them or their teachers.

“There should be more options on the table for one,” HISD mother Marlene Jones said. “We just can’t just come in and take over a school, especially a school that has made progress.”

“They can close the school and they can move us here and maybe move us there,” Whitley High School senior Andrea Walker said. “So a lot of people are more angry about it, but there’s not much we can do. It depends on the county and the government. So we should leave it up to them and pray we don’t get shut down. ”

A HISD teacher who attended the forum said she and her colleagues were scared.

“We don’t know the future,” said Arnetta Murray. “We don’t know if we’ll get a job. We don’t know anything and it’s not fair.”

Community leaders said they called on TEA to meet with them and hold a town hall so the agency can hear directly from the people who will be most affected by the possible takeover.

There is no confirmation yet if this will happen and when.

Houston Maor Sylvester Turner announced a TEA takeover threat last week and said a decision could be “inevitable.”

The only thing TEA has said is that it continues to “review the Supreme Court’s decision to determine the next steps that will best support the students, teachers, parents, and school community of the Houston Independent School District.”

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