A yearslong struggle between the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Houston Independent School District (HISD) came to an end on March 15, 2023. Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath announced in a letter he was appointing a Board of Managers to replace the Houston Independent School District’s (HISD) elected Board of Trustees. Morath cited a number of reasons for the move, including that “one of the district’s campuses received unacceptable academic accountability ratings for five consecutive years.”
Morath, whom Gov. Greg Abbott (R) appointed to oversee the Texas Education Agency in 2015, first signaled his intent to remove the HISD Board of Trustees on Nov. 6, 2019. Morath notified the district of his decision to replace the elected school board and appoint a superintendent following a TEA investigation into the board’s governance and repeatedly poor academic performance ratings at Wheatley High School. However, HISD lawyers filed a complaint against the TEA, and Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy issued an injunction that prohibited Morath from taking control of the district. On Jan. 13, 2023, the Texas Supreme Court ruled state law allows the TEA to take control of the district, ending the injunction.
HISD is the largest district in Texas and the eighth-largest district in the country, with an estimated student population of 200,000. There are 276 schools in the district, including Phillis Wheatley High School, the school Morath identified in his letter as having had several years of poor academic performance. In 2022, Wheatley received its first passing grade in eight years.
