DALLAS — When we sat down with the President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), she didn’t hold back when discussing the state of public schools in Texas, in general, and in Houston, specifically.
Randi Weingarten says Governor Greg Abbott is “defunding” public schools, and she points to the Houston ISD as an example.
The Texas Education Agency took control of the district in June 2023 and installed Mike Miles as Superintendent after ousting the previous Superintendent and the democratically elected school board.
While Miles says he’s been successful so far, and STAAR test results have improved, the district has seen plenty of anger and protests from students, parents and teachers, unhappy with many of the sweeping changes Miles has implemented.
According to our sister station KHOU, out of HISD’s 274 schools, 123 of them, about 40%, still have a campus accountability rating of D or F.
Listen to Mike Miles discuss his first year on the job here: HISD Superintendent Mike Miles' interview with Len Cannon | khou.com
While Miles expects improvement when the latest accountability ratings come out in August, Weingarten, who leads the nation’s second-largest teacher’s union, says Miles has done a “terrible job.”
“The thousands, now, of uncertified teachers that are in the Houston system. The fact that parents hate what’s going on. The fact that they would take libraries and make them detention centers. We had a Houston system that was moving forward and he’s now moving it backward,” Weingarten told us on Inside Texas Politics.
Weingarten was in Houston attending the 2024 AFT Convention, where Kamala Harris attended her first major union event as the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee and gave the keynote address.
During the convention, delegates overwhelmingly voted to endorse Harris, making AFT one of the first unions to do so.
Education will be on the ballot in November, certainly here in Texas, and Weingarten says the top priority is creating opportunities for all kids.
“How do you make every public school a place where parents want to send their kids, educators want to work, and kids thrive? So, it’s a lot of things together, but it’s all about opportunity,” Weingarten said.
And that’s of particular interest in Texas now that Governor Abbott says he has the votes to pass school vouchers.
Weingarten says she thinks Harris will focus on public education because, during her AFT speech, Harris stressed the fact that she attended public schools.
While Texas isn’t a swing state, the AFT will be active here.
“We’re playing a role in defending public schools everywhere. And ultimately we will play a role in Texas again,” she said.