Don't Believe Everything You've Been Told About Us, HISD Trustees Say to TEA
The Texas Education Agency tries to replace school boards in districts where the majority of voters are people of color, according to Houston ISD's present school board.
That was just one of the many charges made by HISD trustees in a 49-page legal response to a six-month TEA investigation that criticized the board for everything from alleged violations of the state's Open Meetings Act to meddling in administrative matters, to exerting pressure in contract matters favoring certain vendors.
Basically, the first amended petition to the suit filed by HISD against the TEA, the Commissioner of Education Mike Morath and the TEA-appointed conservator for the district Doris Delaney, asserts that the state investigation has not only got it all wrong, but it has an agenda of its own with racial overtones and that it is trying to squelch the trustees' right to free speech under the First Amendment.
And it asserts, replacing the elected board with an appointed one is a violation of title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Read more: https://www.houstonpress.com/news/hisd-trustees-file-amended-petition-call-foul-on-tea-11341125