I don’t know whether it is mere coincidence or whether the start of each school year always brings an avalanche of concerning updates about the state of education in America, but the last few weeks have provided more disheartening news, this time from the Lonestar State.
For those of you who are tolerant enough to read this weekly column, it probably comes as no surprise to hear me say that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is not my cup of tea. Since taking office, his executive and legislative priorities have run the gamut from discriminatory and dangerous to just plain bizarre:
- He has banned abortion along with vaccine and mask mandates;
- Posted the 10 Commandments at the state capitol;
- Sued the Environmental Protection Agency to gut carbon emissions regulations;
- Bisected the Rio Grande River with border buoys so lethal that migrants attempting to cross have been maimed and killed;
- Tried—inexplicably—to ban sex toys; and
- Now, with the assistance of the Texas department of education, seized control of Houston Independent School District—all the better to control what students are allowed, and not allowed, to learn in one of the few cities in Texas that leans left.
The initial rationale for the takeover had to do with chronically low test scores at one of the city’s high schools dating back to 2019, but, since that time, scores from that high school—and schools district-wide—have improved. No matter, Abbott and his friends in the legislature were determined to take over an entire district serving close to 200,000 students, the majority of whom are either Hispanic or Black. The fact that there was no longer any reason for the takeover was apparently immaterial.
Guess what happened next? Gov. Abbott and the state education commissioner fired the duly elected school board along with the superintendent who had initiated and overseen the changes that led to the improved test scores, and they installed their own school board and superintendent over the objections of the community. And it should come as no surprise that one of the first actions taken by Abbott’s hand-picked henchmen was to close Houston’s public school libraries.
Perhaps it was inevitable, given that Texas already led the nation in sheer number of books banned—around 1,000 titles—from school libraries across the state. I am sure we can all agree that a room full of empty bookshelves just begs to be repurposed, and the new, unelected school board and superintendent have done exactly that. Now the school libraries in Houston have been transformed into student discipline and detention centers.
Is it possible that a free and appropriate public education presents a challenge to the dominance of a dwindling but politically influential contingent of wealthy white power brokers in Texas? A well educated populace makes them nervous, because it threatens the traditional structures that have benefited them for a very long time.
Public education in America, while rarely living up to its loftier ideals, is still the best path toward upward mobility in these United States; however, the governor and legislature in Texas aren’t big fans of level playing fields, upward mobility, or a more equitable distribution of economic and political power. The old guard likes things just as they are, and they have no interest in anyone else having a seat at their table. After all, if everyone had a seat at the table, who would be left to cook, serve, clear, mop up, and wash the dishes? The low-wage workers have to come from somewhere, and now that those in power have made it increasingly difficult for hardworking migrants to enter the country and acquire work permits, the low-wage workers will need to come from somewhere within.
Somewhere like Houston public schools, perhaps.
