BONUS: The Takeover of Houston ISD w/ Karina Quesada-León

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I am a retired chemical engineer at an early age because I learned very well from a very

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good school.

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Unfortunately, it wasn't HISD, but I value public education and I'm here to speak on

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behalf of folks that couldn't be here today.

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I'm from Baytown, Texas.

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These are the words of teachers who could not be here either because of mandatory NES

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faculty meetings on Thursdays or because they are too afraid.

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Teachers report that Amplify and Eureka lessons are full of mistakes, especially in math.

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A veteran teacher reports children are falling asleep on her for the first time ever.

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One teacher says she is tired of feeling like a robot and her children are not learning.

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A pre-k teacher has been told to keep lights on during nap time.

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A kinder teacher is scared to sit down even briefly.

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Teachers describe the situation as a mess, a nightmare, and talk about leaving mid-year.

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There's a reason we have democratically elected representatives.

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Y'all ain't it.

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Good evening.

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I'm an HISD parent and a long-time taxpayer not in front of my democratically elected

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school board.

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I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of a teacher who, like many others, cannot be here because

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of their duties and their fear of retribution.

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That teacher says this.

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For the last three weeks, everyone at my school has been told to use multiple response strategies

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every four minutes.

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This includes all advanced placement classes.

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Sometimes a single AP question can take more than 10 minutes to read.

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The district-mandated pacing and use of an MRS every four minutes leaves no time for

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assignments with any depth or complexity.

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Usually three weeks into school, I'm getting to know my students' strengths, weaknesses,

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and writing abilities, but not this year.

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Secondly, the district set unrealistic teacher expectations for AP tests with 80% passing

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rates when many national passing rates are not even 45%.

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As a parent, I've appalled by—

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But for the last week, I've had a kid that cries every morning and every evening, crying

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not to go to school and begging not to go in the morning.

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She says school's boring, she's not learning, and she would rather be homeschooled at this

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point, which is really the opposite of what you guys are trying to do, which is keep kids

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in the district.

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She's miserable.

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Her confidence is plummeting, and she's starting to lose her joy for learning, which is the

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opposite of what we want with learners, right?

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She's a student at a non-NES school, it's not an NESA school, but she's still subjected

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to this curriculum that is just disengaging, aggressive, and honestly, it's drill and kill.

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Let's be honest.

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She's already doubting her ability to learn, and it's all thanks to this method.

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So this DOI plan gives the superintendent unbridled access to change district procedures

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and standards at his whim.

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It allows Mike Miles, who utterly failed at being superintendent in Dallas ISD, the ability

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to circumvent the laws that are meant to protect our kids.

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It gives him, whose only experience in education prior to being a superintendent was running

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a consulting service for charter schools, shocking.

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And all it does is give him the ability to continue to enforce this military-style structure.

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We know why, because he was in the military.

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Mike Miles' resume is a brittle scandal.

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Thank you, ma'am.

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What you just heard in the intro were public comments from three community members of Houston

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Independent School District, the largest school district in Texas, and at the center of a

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controversial state takeover by the Texas Education Agency.

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The bell you hear in the audio is a hard cutoff for speakers whose mics were immediately turned off.

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After working its way through the legal system for several years, last winter the Texas Supreme

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Court greenlit the replacement of district superintendent and the locally elected School

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Board of Trustees by the head of the TEA, appointed directly by the governor of Texas,

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Greg Abbott, himself.

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And last month, school was back in session under the newly appointed superintendent Mike

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Miles, former U.S. State Department ambassador, charter school CEO, and Dallas ISD superintendent,

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amid dozens of pedagogical and policy changes that left teachers, parents, and students

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confused, frustrated, and afraid, as you just heard in the public comment from community

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members.

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The takeover of Houston ISD sits at the intersection of so many issues impacting American education

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today.

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Democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarianism, the so-called parents' rights movement, testing

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and accountability measures as they relate to poverty, race, and charter schools.

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On Friday, September 15th, the morning after another heated board meeting in Houston, I

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spoke with Karina Quezada-Leon, a Houston ISD parent, activist, and former teacher who

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has been intensely involved in HISD for a decade, and she was generous to speak with

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me for an hour about the recent history of the majority Hispanic Latino district, the

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impact of the takeover on teachers, families, and students, how they're experiencing the

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new educational system of Superintendent Mike Miles, and what's next for the movement opposed

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to these reactionary changes.

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We're generally not a current events podcast, but because this is a fast-moving story, we

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wanted to release it to listeners as soon and as lightly edited as possible.

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You can also find an overview of the story on our YouTube channel by searching Human

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Restoration Project.

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We hope to follow up with Karina and other affected teachers, parents, and students at

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Houston ISD.

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If you'd like to reach out to me directly, you can do so by emailing nick at humanrestorationproject.org.

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And of course, you can always find more of our work and support us at humanrestorationproject.org.

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I am Karina Quesada, and I have three kids in HISD.

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I used to teach, I taught for about 10 years in Pasadena ISD.

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I'm now a stay-at-home mom, but a lot of times I'm not at home.

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I'm actually more of an advocate and an activist.

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I just don't do it as a paid job.

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So often, sometimes I go into schools with people, with parents, meeting with principals

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or having a special education meeting or things like that.

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I speak Spanish, so our community is always not provided accurate information many times

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or provided information.

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So it's, it's a big need.

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And so I do that when I can.

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2013, it started not here, not here in the district.

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It started with Mike Miles in Dallas, Mike Morales.

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The TA commissioner was a trustee in Dallas and Mike Wallings was the mayor of Dallas.

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They wanted to put in a home rule charter.

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They started funneling a lot of money into school board races, a bunch of billionaires.

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John Arnold was involved.

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And so what they wanted to do was become a home rule charter.

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They needed trustees that would vote to put themselves out of a job, right?

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And then to proceed with this home rule charter, which would give these businessmen access

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to these schools where they could now charter them all off, right?

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And so it was going to be a big cash flow.

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That did not pass.

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It was like in January 2015 that it didn't pass.

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But by the summer during the ledge session, they passed HB 1842, which is what we call

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the takeover law.

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And also HB 1842 also has districts of innovation in it.

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It's part of that law, okay?

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So that passed in 2015.

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And that is the law that says if a school has been failing for five years, once it has

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failed the state test for five years, then the commissioner can do one of two things,

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either close that school down or take it over.

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It's important to note that the cut scores are what's going to be passing is decided

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after the administration of the test.

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So they back in and they always have at least 5% labeled failing schools.

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So you can't ever have all the schools passing.

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So that was the pretense that they had used then.

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My understanding is that this was wrapped up in courts for a while and it was sometime

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the winter that then the Texas Supreme Court basically cleared the way for what I think

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the rest of us in the country saw in the spring, which was the announcement of the takeover

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with Mike Miles put in as this new superintendent and clearing house of this board of trustees

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stuff.

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So you're active well in advance of all of this.

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How does that world change for you then this spring when finally, in the minds of some,

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this takeover is happening?

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What does that mean for you and your work and your activism then?

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So real quick, real, real quick pause to I just want to talk a little bit.

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So another law passed in 2017.

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It's SB 1888 allows for let's say you have a school that's on year four of having failed,

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right?

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You can charter that school off and that gets you off the ticket, right?

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That gives you a reprieve in the accountability.

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So if you charter off your schools, then they won't come and take you over.

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So in 2018, we had 10 schools on the chopping block before they were going to be chartered

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off.

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The community spoke out there was we made national headlines because people got dragged

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out of a meeting, got taken to prison, things like that.

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We did not charter off those 10 schools.

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We did not do so because 1842, the takeover law in 1888, we're working in conjunction

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to privatize, right?

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So instead of the state coming and do it, the districts themselves were like, here are

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our schools, right?

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They were chartering them off themselves.

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We didn't do that.

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So then in 2019, the state's like, we're going to take you over.

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They file a lawsuit.

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There's an injunction.

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They can't get it taken over.

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Then a Senator, Benning Court, files 1365, which basically allows for retroactive stuff

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and for that to bypass that injunction and circumvent the courts and allow for the takeover.

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And that's how we got to where we are.

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And I would like to make a point that all of these laws were bipartisan support.

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That's important to note because people think it's a Republican and Democrat thing.

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And yes, it's more Republicans, but we also have some staunch Republicans in rural areas

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that are very pro-public ed and are not with this.

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And when you say chartered off, is there a particular charter management company that

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then these get passed to or what does that look like then for getting chartered off when

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your school becomes part of that?

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So they made the language really enticing in terms of partnerships.

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And you can partner up with a nonprofit.

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So let's say like a university wanted to take you on or something, then the language made

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it sound to people not really paying attention like, well, it can't be that bad.

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It's an education system sort of thing that's taking it over.

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It's fine.

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But that's not who was going to take the schools.

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Who was going to take our schools is this charter organization that is shady.

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I don't know why this woman still has all these schools.

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There's a lot of fraud going on there.

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What's the company or who's the person?

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Just so...

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Lois Bullock.

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Okay.

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And oh my gosh, I still remember it was one night, 2 a.m.

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I'm like geeking out, looking up stuff about her because I just figured out that that's

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what the schools, they were wanting to charter them because they were keeping it a secret

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who they wanted to charter off the schools to.

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And I find that she has a private company that's making money off of it.

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So the private company was holding the land, right?

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And then she had these different charter school operations and she would charge herself rent.

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And she'd also pay herself for her services and pay herself as an employee at all these

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different schools.

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And she'd have two schools co-locating in the same building and would charge them both

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rent.

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And she'd charge herself like her salary as well.

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She's a millionaire.

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Okay.

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And this is, I just Googled, is it like Energized for Excellence Academy, Inc.?

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Okay.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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There are a lot of articles about this.

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What is Energized Contract is a noxious, corrupt weed energized to exploit.

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So it seems like, yeah, there is a lot of interesting and that to me, from my perspective,

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that's just baked into it.

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Anytime that you're in the business of privatizing, of course, people are going to be looking

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to take a slice off the top or try to figure out a way to funnel more funds.

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Those stories are everywhere.

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So it's wild that more people weren't hip to that.

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In my look at, I guess, the takeover, the heated school board meetings, et cetera, this

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really seemed like something that is being done to parents.

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Of course, from what I can tell, parents are willingly admitting that, of course, not everything

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is perfect, that some changes need to be made.

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This seemed like a bridge way too far, something done to parents and the community against

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their wishes.

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Is that a correct characterization?

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Absolutely.

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I will be the fool to say that our school district before the takeover had issues, major

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issues, major issues of inequality, and it's inequitable, inequitable.

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The funds that are dedicated to some schools, like you have this, the one that I hate the

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most is the HSPVA, the one for the performing arts, and all this money goes to it.

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Kids audition to be into that school from the district, and then they won't take them.

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They'll take kids from another district before they take some of our kids.

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And then you have kids down the, schools down the street that don't have their basic needs

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met.

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They don't have basic things.

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And so I will be the first, but this, what they're doing now is just exasperating the

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issues that were, and now it's like you have no recourse.

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There is no accountability.

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If you don't like something, who, what can we do before with the elected board?

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We can come in mass and we can say, we don't like this.

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We're upset.

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We're, you know, we don't like it.

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We don't like it.

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And that school board trustee, if she saw, he or she saw a lot of people that were in

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her district, their constituents, they might change their vote, right?

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Because at the end of the day, they need, they are going to run for reelection, right?

234
00:16:06,420 --> 00:16:09,900
So they're accountable to us.

235
00:16:09,900 --> 00:16:12,260
Now we don't, they're not accountable.

236
00:16:12,260 --> 00:16:15,580
The board of managers is not accountable to us.

237
00:16:15,580 --> 00:16:17,680
Mike Miles is not accountable to us.

238
00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:25,780
So when we go, it's like there, nothing we say matters to them.

239
00:16:25,780 --> 00:16:31,300
Because of the way then that the takeover proceeded over the spring is that my understanding

240
00:16:31,300 --> 00:16:35,820
is that Mike Miles and the board of trustees are appointed by the governor.

241
00:16:35,820 --> 00:16:37,660
Is that a correct way to understand it?

242
00:16:37,660 --> 00:16:43,220
Or what's the process by which like the democratically elected people are out?

243
00:16:43,220 --> 00:16:47,580
And how did the, how does the new board who is not responsive, responsive and responsible

244
00:16:47,580 --> 00:16:52,340
to you all as Houston parents, how do they get put in charge then?

245
00:16:52,340 --> 00:16:59,180
So they were selected, hand selected by our, our commissioner of education to EA commissioner

246
00:16:59,180 --> 00:17:04,260
Mike Morath, which by the way, that is an appointed position.

247
00:17:04,420 --> 00:17:06,220
He's been appointed by the governor.

248
00:17:06,220 --> 00:17:07,220
Okay.

249
00:17:07,220 --> 00:17:08,220
Okay.

250
00:17:08,220 --> 00:17:13,820
Well, at the end of the day, the big bosses are Mike Morath and his boss is Greg Abbott.

251
00:17:13,820 --> 00:17:14,820
Right.

252
00:17:14,820 --> 00:17:15,820
Okay.

253
00:17:15,820 --> 00:17:22,140
So, so it's, it's in a way the, the appointment by the appointee of the governor.

254
00:17:22,140 --> 00:17:27,180
So like at the end of the day, you know, that pyramid doesn't go to you, the parents to

255
00:17:27,180 --> 00:17:32,180
decide the pyramid, the power goes up through the election commit or the education commissioner

256
00:17:32,180 --> 00:17:33,760
to the governor.

257
00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:39,760
So really from the ground floor in Houston, then through the state to the governor themselves

258
00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:41,360
directly.

259
00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:45,840
One of the things I think that is so bewildering to me, particularly in a state like Texas,

260
00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:51,040
I mean, I'm, I'm in Iowa, you know, where we've had our own conversations around parents'

261
00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:58,240
rights and all these other kinds of loaded, loaded phrases, you know, this seems like

262
00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:04,480
a total contradiction to this emphasis and focus on parent rights.

263
00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:08,280
It really makes me think of, of course, like, well, who, when we say that phrase, parent

264
00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:10,080
rights, who do we mean?

265
00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:13,400
What parents are we talking about?

266
00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,360
This wouldn't happen in a white district in rural Iowa.

267
00:18:16,360 --> 00:18:18,440
You know what I'm saying?

268
00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:19,560
What's your perspective on that?

269
00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:20,560
You know?

270
00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:21,560
Yeah.

271
00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:24,960
Parents' rights only apply to white people, right?

272
00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:25,960
Yeah.

273
00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:30,920
That doesn't apply to Latinos and blacks and minorities.

274
00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:36,400
That doesn't apply to us, which interestingly enough, you know, there was all this rhetoric

275
00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:40,480
and talk about parents' rights and I was like, we already have that.

276
00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:47,840
Like if some of you people bothered to inform yourself just a little bit, like, you would

277
00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:51,340
know that you have the right to visit your child's classroom.

278
00:18:51,340 --> 00:18:54,080
You have the right to look at the curriculum.

279
00:18:54,560 --> 00:19:02,000
That already exists, but it was a political talking point that works well for people that

280
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:07,920
don't really know but want to force their views and their opinions on everyone else,

281
00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:08,920
right?

282
00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:14,680
Like if there's a book there that I don't like, I don't want my kid to read, fine,

283
00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:15,840
I won't let him read it.

284
00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:21,520
But then that doesn't mean that I should, that means that I now can decide whether your

285
00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:28,200
kid gets to read it, like, that's not, no, my right doesn't extend to enforce my will

286
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:29,680
onto other people.

287
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:34,440
Now, I mean, it feels, it seems like no parent has rights in Houston.

288
00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:38,800
Those have been subverted by, you know, this hostile takeover.

289
00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:44,000
So how has your experience as a parent and maybe their experience as students in the

290
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:51,640
district between the end of last year, you know, kind of the last year of perhaps normalcy

291
00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:57,280
ahead of the takeover and really in the first couple of weeks of class then here in August

292
00:19:57,280 --> 00:19:58,280
and September?

293
00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:07,960
Well, they are, we are in what's called the Heights in Houston, and the area is predominantly

294
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:12,120
white, and it's affluent.

295
00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:18,400
So it was signaled very early on that basically these schools would not be touched.

296
00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:23,080
However, there are changes going on in the schools.

297
00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:26,880
My daughter has told me that the first day of school, she's in middle school, they weren't

298
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:30,040
allowed to have getting to know you activities.

299
00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:33,080
They weren't allowed to get to know their teachers and their teachers weren't allowed

300
00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:34,440
to get to know them.

301
00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:41,760
They have timers and they have to get, the pacing is really, really quick.

302
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,600
She is not happy about it.

303
00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:49,560
She does understand that this isn't coming from her teachers and it's not coming from

304
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:55,560
her principal, but she's, you know, still doesn't like it and she's getting walk-throughs

305
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:56,560
all the time.

306
00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,480
The principals are constantly in the classroom, constantly.

307
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:05,160
It's just a system of surveillance.

308
00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:11,480
I have a niece and a nephew in a, also, none of my kids are in an NES school, right?

309
00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:13,040
Or NES aligned.

310
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:19,480
My niece and nephew, we thought they were also not in an NES school, but that school

311
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,880
is what, is like an NES supported school.

312
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:28,520
So it's off the record, off the books, but all the horrible stuff is going on there.

313
00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:32,400
And just for listeners, real quick to pause, who might not be familiar again with that

314
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:34,520
NES label for the schools.

315
00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:36,440
I know it's so hard.

316
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:40,500
What does that mean and what does that look like on the ground for those schools?

317
00:21:40,500 --> 00:21:42,020
That is Mike Miles.

318
00:21:42,020 --> 00:21:49,580
That's what he called the 28 schools, is new education system and education system consists

319
00:21:49,580 --> 00:21:56,000
of four minute timers where you do demonstrations of learning, you do multiple response strategies

320
00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:00,380
where kids have to stop, the teacher has to stop every four minutes, whatever it is that

321
00:22:00,380 --> 00:22:07,380
she's teaching and do some work and write on index cards that like teachers joke that

322
00:22:07,380 --> 00:22:11,800
they should have bought stock in with the index card companies because they're going

323
00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:15,500
through so many of them.

324
00:22:15,500 --> 00:22:20,160
So there's the NES schools, oh, and their libraries were removed and they're, well,

325
00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:24,140
not the physical library, but books were taken out.

326
00:22:24,140 --> 00:22:31,140
They've left some books maybe here or there and the bookshelves are like facing against

327
00:22:31,140 --> 00:22:32,140
the walls.

328
00:22:32,140 --> 00:22:37,080
And now those are teams, they're called team centers, which is really a detention center.

329
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:44,660
So if a child acts up, they get sent into this room that used to be the library.

330
00:22:44,660 --> 00:22:50,840
But also another thing that I found out is that, let's say your nine-year-old gets removed

331
00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:51,920
from the class.

332
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:56,900
So now they have to go into the library where they have their computer and they will get

333
00:22:56,900 --> 00:23:00,220
to zoom in and watch the class.

334
00:23:00,220 --> 00:23:07,940
But not only that, so their image is now blasted in their classroom on a wall.

335
00:23:07,940 --> 00:23:12,580
So they're projected into the class as well through the zoom.

336
00:23:12,580 --> 00:23:13,580
Yes.

337
00:23:13,580 --> 00:23:14,580
Oh.

338
00:23:14,580 --> 00:23:15,580
Yes.

339
00:23:15,580 --> 00:23:20,060
And so not only was there a spectacle of like, you got to go to the zoom room, you get zoomed

340
00:23:20,060 --> 00:23:21,060
back in.

341
00:23:21,060 --> 00:23:27,020
So we're all still very cognizant of the fact that little Jimmy over here misbehaved or

342
00:23:27,020 --> 00:23:28,820
for whatever reason had to leave.

343
00:23:29,020 --> 00:23:32,820
Oh, and you can't tell if you're being projected on the wall.

344
00:23:32,820 --> 00:23:36,740
You can't tell what the reaction is or what people are saying about you or anything else

345
00:23:36,740 --> 00:23:37,740
in the room.

346
00:23:37,740 --> 00:23:46,420
The NES schools are also the same thing, except the only differences there is the NES schools

347
00:23:46,420 --> 00:23:49,300
had to have the teachers all got let go.

348
00:23:49,300 --> 00:23:51,740
They had to reapply for their jobs.

349
00:23:51,740 --> 00:23:58,780
The NES aligned, those are the ones that their principals volunteered and volunteered

350
00:23:58,780 --> 00:24:04,980
because principals have been removed from their positions that were resistant.

351
00:24:04,980 --> 00:24:12,260
So there are some volunteer schools that are now NES aligned and they didn't have to reapply

352
00:24:12,260 --> 00:24:13,260
for the jobs.

353
00:24:13,260 --> 00:24:18,020
The teachers didn't have to do that, but they do have the zoom rooms as well.

354
00:24:18,020 --> 00:24:20,740
And the teachers don't have the added pay.

355
00:24:20,740 --> 00:24:26,500
So apparently the NES schools had extra pay, which also is a point of contention because

356
00:24:26,500 --> 00:24:31,660
what they were advertised as what they were going to get paid is not in actuality what

357
00:24:31,660 --> 00:24:32,660
they're getting paid.

358
00:24:32,660 --> 00:24:38,940
So am I right to understand then that basically there's like two tiers of schools within the

359
00:24:38,940 --> 00:24:44,260
Houston ISD then because there would be the non NES ones, which are, is it just business

360
00:24:44,260 --> 00:24:45,260
as usual?

361
00:24:45,260 --> 00:24:46,260
And then the NES ones?

362
00:24:46,260 --> 00:24:47,260
Oh, okay.

363
00:24:47,260 --> 00:24:48,260
Three.

364
00:24:48,780 --> 00:24:49,780
Okay.

365
00:24:49,780 --> 00:24:54,660
NES aligned, the secret NES supported and the non NES.

366
00:24:54,660 --> 00:24:56,020
Oh, Lord.

367
00:24:56,020 --> 00:24:57,020
Okay.

368
00:24:57,020 --> 00:25:02,420
And it's just kind of, my guess is that those are probably based on like socioeconomic, you

369
00:25:02,420 --> 00:25:04,620
know, demographic breakdowns.

370
00:25:04,620 --> 00:25:09,620
I would guess that the more affluent whiter schools are probably on the less restricted

371
00:25:09,620 --> 00:25:17,420
side and then the non white lower socioeconomic schools are probably closer to the more, I

372
00:25:17,580 --> 00:25:18,580
don't know.

373
00:25:18,580 --> 00:25:23,060
It's like a prison style model almost based on what I can tell, honestly.

374
00:25:23,060 --> 00:25:24,060
And yeah.

375
00:25:24,060 --> 00:25:28,340
Well, have you gotten feedback at all from, have you heard anything else from other parents

376
00:25:28,340 --> 00:25:32,460
or other students and people about just how these first couple of weeks have gone?

377
00:25:32,460 --> 00:25:36,020
I've read the posts and I guess horror stories.

378
00:25:36,020 --> 00:25:37,700
What have you heard on the ground?

379
00:25:37,700 --> 00:25:44,380
Well, this past week, just yesterday when we were at the school board meeting, well,

380
00:25:44,380 --> 00:25:52,020
I found out about my, the secret NES supported thing because I found out through my sister-in-law

381
00:25:52,020 --> 00:25:54,100
who has two children that just started.

382
00:25:54,100 --> 00:25:59,420
They had been homeschooled this whole time and they were so excited.

383
00:25:59,420 --> 00:26:05,220
They're going into third grade, eight-year-old little twins were so excited to go to school.

384
00:26:05,220 --> 00:26:13,540
They were just so joyous and excited and now they are sad, crying, frustrated, feeling

385
00:26:13,540 --> 00:26:17,260
dumb and down about themselves, upset.

386
00:26:17,260 --> 00:26:24,460
And she's found out that this is what they're doing, the NES, basically the NES curriculum

387
00:26:24,460 --> 00:26:28,540
and following all of this stuff, but they still have their libraries.

388
00:26:28,540 --> 00:26:30,300
And so that's how we found out.

389
00:26:30,300 --> 00:26:39,860
But the curriculum and the bad treatment that is coming from the top and it has to be doled

390
00:26:39,860 --> 00:26:42,980
down.

391
00:26:42,980 --> 00:26:49,220
And so it's just, her children are English, they're emerging bilingual, so they're stronger

392
00:26:49,220 --> 00:26:50,660
actually in Spanish.

393
00:26:50,660 --> 00:26:55,500
They're not getting, they're in a dual language school, they're not getting enough, a lot

394
00:26:55,500 --> 00:26:58,820
of the Spanish support that they need.

395
00:26:58,820 --> 00:27:04,140
And so I found out about that just this week when she got called into a conference because

396
00:27:04,140 --> 00:27:08,540
her children were not completing the work in time.

397
00:27:08,580 --> 00:27:14,540
And so they're really upset because they try very hard to finish it and some kids finish

398
00:27:14,540 --> 00:27:16,580
it and some kids don't.

399
00:27:16,580 --> 00:27:21,140
And one of my nephews said, I wish I could do it, but I can't.

400
00:27:21,140 --> 00:27:24,020
And that makes me so sad for him.

401
00:27:24,020 --> 00:27:25,660
It's upsetting.

402
00:27:25,660 --> 00:27:31,340
And so he says that he, it's very distracting because a lot of people keep always coming

403
00:27:31,340 --> 00:27:37,660
into his classroom and he can't concentrate and he doesn't have enough Spanish, he says.

404
00:27:37,780 --> 00:27:41,820
So it's really hard and he doesn't like it.

405
00:27:41,820 --> 00:27:45,020
He doesn't like his school.

406
00:27:45,020 --> 00:27:53,620
And so, but other parents at this board meeting and children were talking last night and teachers

407
00:27:53,620 --> 00:27:54,620
too.

408
00:27:54,620 --> 00:28:01,740
There was a couple of teachers and then there were parents that volunteered to speak for

409
00:28:01,740 --> 00:28:03,720
teachers who wanted to remain anonymous.

410
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:10,440
So the teacher would write something in and we had people volunteering to read out what

411
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,600
the teachers who wanted to remain anonymous were saying.

412
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:18,440
At the end of this meeting, had over 50 people, children included.

413
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:22,960
Oh, and by the way, they were cutting the mic on the children.

414
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,880
They were given only a minute, we were all given only a minute.

415
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:31,000
Historically, the elected board never would cut the mic on kids.

416
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:32,000
The kids get nervous.

417
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:36,280
You start stuttering and stammering and you can't get out what you want to say.

418
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:37,280
It's hard.

419
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:39,080
Public speaking is hard for adults.

420
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:41,160
Imagine your child.

421
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:48,960
My little girl is very shy, but she was compelled when she heard her cousins were upset after

422
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:51,800
seeing how happy they were.

423
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:52,800
She was so nervous.

424
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:54,340
She's like, but I want to do it.

425
00:28:54,340 --> 00:28:56,160
She had never gone to a board meeting.

426
00:28:56,160 --> 00:29:01,600
I live there and she had never gone to a board meeting, but she was compelled and her mic

427
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:02,600
got cut.

428
00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:05,640
Then there were other children whose mics got cut.

429
00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:12,560
And then at the end of this meeting, Mike Miles said that that day, today we, the board

430
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:17,860
of managers, we toured, I think he said like 10 schools and saw what we saw what things

431
00:29:17,860 --> 00:29:20,920
are actually like on the ground.

432
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,760
We saw what the reality is, not what is being said here.

433
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:29,200
So called the children, the teachers, the parents, we're all living in an alternate

434
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:32,280
reality and liars.

435
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:35,640
So it's really, really frustrating.

436
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:38,480
The gaslighting that takes place real quick.

437
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:43,280
The other, the other thing that happened last night was the vote on the district of innovation.

438
00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:47,480
I was a district advisory committee member.

439
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:54,560
So the way that used to work was so you have your elected members of the DAC who are teachers

440
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:56,360
teachers and staff.

441
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:57,360
They have elections.

442
00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:02,240
They get elected community members, parents and business people.

443
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:03,560
They get appointed.

444
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:07,560
They're appointed by the elected board.

445
00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:10,960
So you know, people run for office.

446
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:14,100
You know, they tell you what their vision, their values are.

447
00:30:14,100 --> 00:30:15,860
You vote on that person.

448
00:30:15,860 --> 00:30:17,840
That person gets elected, right?

449
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:22,920
By the majority of people who believed in their vision and their plan for schools.

450
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:29,440
That person then turns around and appoints two people per their district to be on the

451
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:37,400
deck so that the community still has a voice and is present in this deck.

452
00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:40,840
The deck is only an advisory role, right?

453
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:42,720
You don't have any power.

454
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:48,960
They present like the, you know, the professional development plan, you know, the student handbook.

455
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:49,960
We look at it.

456
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:50,960
We give feedback.

457
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:56,000
Feedback is usually not taken too much seriously.

458
00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:04,080
So again, no power except for in 2015 with the passing of HB 1842 that has districts

459
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:13,160
of innovation in statute, it says that one of the ways to be the only way for the board

460
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:19,120
to become a district of innovation is first, the DAC, the district advisory committee has

461
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:27,680
to vote yes, like a majority vote yes on the district of innovation plan that is presented.

462
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:34,080
And once the DAC, the district advisory committee votes yes, then that plan can go before the

463
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:37,120
board and the board can then vote on it.

464
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:42,240
And it has to have a two thirds majority vote in order to then become, accept the plan and

465
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,040
become a district advisory committee.

466
00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:51,640
The reason that there is a clause that says that the district advisory committee has to

467
00:31:51,640 --> 00:32:00,680
approve it first is because the district of innovation gives you exemptions to 67, 67

468
00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:02,520
things from the Texas education code.

469
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:09,000
So you get to exempt from having to have certified teachers, from classroom sizes, from notifying

470
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:14,480
parents that they're being taught by uncertified teacher that the class size is huge.

471
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:22,160
You don't have the two duty-free lunches for teachers, conference periods, planning periods,

472
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:26,480
things like their contracts, the school year.

473
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:28,680
It's 67 different things.

474
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:34,000
It's a big amount of things, of having to make school improvement plans, of having,

475
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:39,720
of even having a district advisory committee, you can exempt yourself from that.

476
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:45,360
Having campus-based school decision-making bodies, you don't have to have them.

477
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:47,280
You can exempt yourself from a lot of stuff.

478
00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:53,760
So because your, because district innovation allows the district to exempt itself from

479
00:32:53,760 --> 00:33:02,120
so many state laws and that provide protections and rights to teachers, students, and parents,

480
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:09,680
it needed some checks and balances, some guardrails for not giving too much power to a superintendent

481
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:13,480
and a board when you're going to exempt yourself from state law, right?

482
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:15,920
Let's have a voice for the community.

483
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:17,600
Let's have them have a vote.

484
00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:18,600
What do they think?

485
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:23,480
What do these teachers think that are going to, that this very much affects them?

486
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:25,040
What do the, what do the teachers think?

487
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:27,160
What do the parents and community members think?

488
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:36,000
And then if they give it a yes, then it goes off to the, to the board of trustees, right?

489
00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:43,600
Well, this administration got ahead of it, changed the policy so that the superintendent

490
00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:46,400
could stack the DAC.

491
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:53,800
I got a letter two days ago, finally got an email that my, my term was, I was dismissed

492
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:57,160
and it was effective immediately.

493
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:02,040
Of the new DAC, the DAC committee used to only be about 39 people.

494
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:05,720
It is now consists of 60.

495
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:14,200
18 of those people that were appointed, 18 of them had applied to be on the board of managers.

496
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:19,440
All the people that voted no on district, that were on that DAC, that voted district,

497
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:26,880
voted no to district of innovation in 2021 because it had come before our, our, our school,

498
00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:32,120
our advisory committee, it had come before it, before and we voted no.

499
00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:35,600
Those of us that voted no, we got dismissed.

500
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:41,520
The elected teachers, they're still there because they couldn't, but we, we were let go.

501
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:47,120
There are at least three or four people that were on there, other parents, moms, that were

502
00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:53,120
very pro takeover, very pro districts of innovation, they're still there.

503
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,040
They stacked the DAC so they could get it done.

504
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:59,600
So is that a done deal then as of the board meeting last night, as far as some, those

505
00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:03,960
schools becoming, or I guess the district becoming district of innovation, then is that

506
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,360
a done thing or what's the next step for that?

507
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:09,400
We're in the process of checking boxes, right?

508
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:11,400
They're in the process of checking boxes.

509
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:17,560
So they now named their committee, the planning committee for like, what, what is the

510
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:19,080
district of innovation plan?

511
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:20,800
What's it going to look like, right?

512
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:25,640
Are you going to check off all the exemptions or which exemptions are you going to claim?

513
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:26,400
Right.

514
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:29,160
So yesterday was a public hearing on that.

515
00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:34,240
And so one of the things I, you know, it was, they told us on Monday that it was going

516
00:35:34,240 --> 00:35:37,280
to be on Thursday and then did it at 4pm.

517
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:40,600
It's obvious you don't tell me without telling me that you don't want to hear what

518
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:45,200
people want to think, think about this and also tell us what exemptions other than as

519
00:35:45,240 --> 00:35:49,120
early start to the school year, there were no exemptions.

520
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:54,000
So how can we provide like meaningful comments on something when we don't know, we

521
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:56,560
don't have a clue as to what you plan on putting on there.

522
00:35:57,080 --> 00:36:01,440
So that was, they, they picked, this is something curious.

523
00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:04,600
They put, they picked the people that are going to make this plan.

524
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:08,120
One of the people they picked is they picked one of their own.

525
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:16,320
So one of the board of managers is on the, uh, the DOI, the district of innovation,

526
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,080
uh, planning committee as well.

527
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,680
So it's pretty much just rubber stamping the process.

528
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:25,720
Now they know what they want and they're just going to check the boxes to make sure

529
00:36:25,720 --> 00:36:28,840
that they have all their legal ducks in a row and everything else.

530
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:32,920
They probably have to have so many hearings and have to do everything else.

531
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:34,720
Is, is ready to go.

532
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:35,560
Everything is ready.

533
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:37,400
The plan just needs to be developed.

534
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:39,840
Once it's developed, it goes before the DAC.

535
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:41,800
The DAC has to vote it up or down.

536
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:46,360
So as long as they've stacked it with enough people, it will pass and then it'll

537
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:51,200
go before the board and they don't ever, they all vote in unison.

538
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,840
They all say yes to whatever it is.

539
00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:56,240
You know, they gave him the contracts.

540
00:36:56,240 --> 00:36:57,520
They gave him a million dollar check.

541
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:01,240
So anything less than a million dollars, he doesn't have to come for the, to the

542
00:37:01,240 --> 00:37:07,280
board to ask before it was anything over a hundred thousand asked.

543
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:08,840
Now they don't, now he doesn't.

544
00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:09,880
Wow.

545
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:14,200
It just seems like from, from start to finish, this whole process is just an end

546
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:19,800
run around democracy, basically even the district of innovation thing.

547
00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:25,640
You, you imagine those laws and policies were put in place by the state legislature,

548
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:29,840
by, you know, uh, appointed people at the TEA, et cetera.

549
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:34,240
And now you have an unelected, you know, appointed group at the local level, who's

550
00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:40,960
going to, um, basically throw those rules out and, uh, get to decide kind of how

551
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:42,280
they want to proceed from there.

552
00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:47,600
Um, is there anything I'm just thinking like, I know the situation's moving so fast.

553
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:53,120
Is there anything that people are missing out on in the national picture?

554
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,520
Is there a thing, is there something that needs to have more focus and attention

555
00:37:56,520 --> 00:38:01,480
paid to it, or is it just such an ongoing, you know, onslaught?

556
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:03,000
Everyone's drinking out of a fire hose.

557
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:04,040
Yeah.

558
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:08,880
It's just a constant, like, there's constantly something going on.

559
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:11,720
I heard today, I don't know who they are.

560
00:38:11,720 --> 00:38:14,920
I heard that six principals were removed yesterday.

561
00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:16,120
Okay.

562
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:20,280
Is it, I don't doubt it for one second, um, who they are.

563
00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:20,960
I don't know.

564
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:31,840
Um, it's just a constant, constant issue, like, and it's really, it's

565
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:34,360
really telling how discriminatory it is.

566
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:42,440
Um, so we're having like our black and brown communities going without

567
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:47,560
libraries, um, being put in like basically jails, our students are

568
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:54,280
constant mass surveillance, um, and, and you don't see the same thing

569
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:57,240
happening in the more affluent schools.

570
00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:01,080
There's just a lot more, uh, freedom going on.

571
00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:02,520
They still have their libraries.

572
00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:04,200
They still have their librarians.

573
00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:06,600
Um, they're not getting there.

574
00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:09,600
They are apparently, I think all getting walkthroughs, but they're not

575
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:13,320
having the district walkthroughs come in every, like every day.

576
00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:19,760
Um, and so it's, I think it's a big issue of, of civil rights, right.

577
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:21,560
And discrimination that's going on.

578
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:28,520
Um, we, this is about, this is about a city that is predominantly,

579
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:36,080
uh, Hispanic and black, um, voting, not doing what the Texas

580
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:37,840
education agency wants, right.

581
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:41,640
We said no to chartering off 10, our school, 10 of our schools.

582
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:45,440
And then we said no to becoming a district of innovation.

583
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:47,840
And they said, that's enough of y'all.

584
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:51,640
If we've got it now, so we're going to start charting off schools, closing

585
00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:54,240
schools, and we, and you will become a district of innovation.

586
00:39:54,240 --> 00:39:58,240
We will stack the deck and you will become a district of innovation.

587
00:39:58,240 --> 00:40:03,960
So, um, like you people, you people don't know how to govern yourselves.

588
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:06,800
We're going to have to come in and do it for you, right.

589
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:09,160
The black and the brown people can't govern themselves.

590
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:11,440
They, they don't know, they don't know any better.

591
00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:14,120
Where, where does it go from here?

592
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:20,320
What I guess is the next step for HISD for parents like yourself, for people

593
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:24,960
who are trying to resist, what's what, where's the energy going?

594
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:26,480
Where, what's the next step?

595
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,320
I think that's what we're trying to figure out, right.

596
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:34,360
We're like sitting here trying to wrap our brains, um, of what to do.

597
00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:39,880
Um, you know, previously, like we've had historically, like here in Houston, when

598
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:44,440
it was time to desegregate the schools, uh, Latinos, Hispanics were, were labeled

599
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:51,280
as white and so were utilized, um, to, to mix in with, with the black students

600
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:55,920
and then say, we desegregated and that was not the case, like they were, their

601
00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:58,960
schools was, were dilapidated and our schools were dilapidated.

602
00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:02,760
So now we were just mixed in together in dilapidated schools.

603
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:06,840
Um, and still the school district was not, uh, desegregated.

604
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:12,040
So there was a movement by the Mexican Americans and Mexicans and we started,

605
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:16,240
they started, this is, I believe in the sixties, huelga schools, so strike schools.

606
00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:18,320
So they pulled their kids out of school.

607
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:22,440
Um, however, something like that, I think would not work since we're trying to

608
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:26,040
privatize and, um, destroy public schools.

609
00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:30,280
So I don't know if pulling our kids out of school is, is maybe plays right into it.

610
00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:35,480
But my point is, I think we need to figure out some type of direct action.

611
00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:39,960
Uh, we are going to the school board meetings and again, not for their benefit,

612
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:44,160
but for everybody else and to get media attention and to continue putting that

613
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:48,960
press and that pressure and shining a light on the darkness that, that is going on.

614
00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:55,120
Um, but I think it's going to take some type of, of direct action.

615
00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:59,600
What that action is, is we're trying to figure that out.

616
00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:05,960
And we don't, I believe have the infrastructure or like the systems in place

617
00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:10,520
because we're kind of, we're trying to come together because Houston is huge.

618
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:10,840
Right.

619
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:16,640
And we have a ton of schools, like to be able to like amass the amount of people

620
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:23,080
that we might need to amass in order to affect change, um, it's going to take a

621
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:28,720
little bit of time, I think, but thinking it's probably going to take some type

622
00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:31,160
radical direct action.

623
00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:36,640
Is there, is there a place, um, that where people can just follow what's going on?

624
00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:40,280
I know that I've followed like the Houston, um, education association

625
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:41,400
account on Twitter.

626
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:42,680
That's been very effective.

627
00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:45,600
Um, are there other places you would recommend people if they're listening

628
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:50,200
to this to either check out or if they're, if they're local, even in Houston

629
00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:52,920
or adjacent cities to kind of see and follow what's going on?

630
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:58,240
I would say Houston, uh, community schools for public education.

631
00:42:58,600 --> 00:42:59,920
It's an organization.

632
00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:02,360
Um, I belong to it.

633
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:09,000
Um, so there it's just community voices for public education and it's just an

634
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:13,840
organization and we, we have a lot of information that posts on Instagram.

635
00:43:14,200 --> 00:43:15,520
They have a Facebook group.

636
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:16,920
They have a website.

637
00:43:17,240 --> 00:43:19,280
Uh, they have a Twitter.

638
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:23,400
We also do stuff like information on how to opt out of, of star testing.

639
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,320
Like we don't, my children don't ever say, take the star test.

640
00:43:26,720 --> 00:43:30,360
Um, we completely opt out of it, including my 11th grade son.

641
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:31,560
So we don't do it.

642
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:35,440
Uh, that's another, that would be harder to do, I think, cause people are scared,

643
00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:38,720
but that would be another means is to just don't take the test.

644
00:43:38,720 --> 00:43:40,080
Don't give them the faulty data.

645
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:47,840
Um, but I think that's a hard ask for people, um, if they don't, especially

646
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:51,960
if they're scared and they don't know, you know, what we do have trainings.

647
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:53,200
We do help people.

648
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:55,120
We, we know where the letters are.

649
00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:58,800
Another organization that, well, an organization that does strictly

650
00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:05,320
with opting out is, um, Texas Texans against the star or something like that.

651
00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:06,080
It's on Facebook.

652
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:11,080
They, they do have an amazing job, but it's not, that's Texas Houston

653
00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:15,880
locally is a community voices for public education, provide a wealth of

654
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:20,880
information, always a breakdown on what just happened and what is going on.

655
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:23,760
Even maybe have linked news stories, things like that.

656
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:24,960
It's a great place.

657
00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:28,920
I just wanted to thank you so much, Karina for joining me today.

658
00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:29,880
You're welcome.

659
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:36,400
Thank you again for listening to human restoration projects podcast.

660
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:39,120
I hope that this conversation leads you inspired and ready to push

661
00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:40,680
the progressive envelope of education.

662
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:44,120
You can learn more about progressive education, support our cause and stay

663
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:48,480
tuned to this podcast and other updates on our website at human restoration project.

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