School takeovers by states may become more common
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
A cheerleader at UP Academy Leonard Middle School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where 80% of residents are Latino, watches as the Step Team performs for a teacher about to receive an award. Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
The takeover of the Houston Independent School District by the state of Texas is part of a national trend that is likely to accelerate amid political conflicts and pressures to close achievement gaps, experts tell Axios.
Why it matters: The student population in the nation's public schools is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, but disparities, particularly for Black and Latino students, have worsened — especially after the COVID-19 pandemic stalled academic progress for many elementary and middle schoolers and reversed years of gains.
- The future of the coming, more diverse U.S. workforce rests on addressing systemic inequalities. How to do it is sparking intense fights.
Driving the news: Billions of dollars spent to help schools recover from pandemic education setbacks have yet to produce significant results — and studies show that educational inequities facing Black and Latino students have only expanded over the last three years.
- "Students in marginalized communities already had wide disparity before COVID. But now with COVID, you see the disparity even wider," Kenneth Wong, an education policy professor at Brown University, tells Axios.
- That lack of progress after the influx of pandemic money is likely to generate more talk of takeovers, he says.
- Yet history shows school takeovers often yield mixed results.
Background: Since the 1980s, there have been about 110 school district takeovers by state and local governments, Domingo Morel, author of "Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy," tells Axios.
- New Jersey helped start the trend by taking over school districts in 1989 over financial mismanagement and student performance concerns. Takeovers in Michigan and Rhode Island followed.
- Most of those school districts had majority Black and Latino student populations and didn't experience dramatic changes from the takeovers, according to three decades of data analyzed by Morel.
The number of takeovers rose steadily after President George W. Bush signed the federal No Child Left Behind Act in 2002.
- That law required states to close or take over schools or implement other significant changes if there had been years of low test scores and failures in other student achievement measures.
- The law was replaced by the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act, which has similar requirements.
How it works: Takeovers can involve an aggressive oversight of a district after the removal, without community input, of an elected school board or superintendent.
- They can also be shaped as a partnership between a state or local agency and community members. Plans of action are usually drawn before a district can operate independently again.
Yes, but: Political hostilities arising from takeovers and their limited success have lingered for years, says Morel, a political science and public service professor at New York University.
- In Detroit, for example, a state takeover of the city's school district led to worse problems.
- "Most people are skeptical of the argument that states are coming in to improve schools now that we have 30 years of evidence that it's not happening," Morel says.
But, but, but: There have been success stories.
- In Lawrence, Massachusetts, a city where more than 80% of residents are Latino, the state takeover a decade ago has resulted in higher student performance.
- The change followed years of political and student performance turmoil.
- Still, even in Lawrence, community members later in the takeover felt their voices were pushed aside and the results were mixed, Morel says.
Zoom out: Despite takeover laws, many states make excuses not to take over troubled schools or districts, says Chester Finn Jr., president emeritus of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
- For example, New Mexico, a state that consistently ranks last in education, was posed in 2019 to take control or close several schools that had received an "F" for several consecutive years.
- But a then-newly elected Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham repealed the grading system and kept the schools open.
- "It's wimping out. I've watched this happen all the time," said Chester, a former U.S. assistant secretary of education during the Reagan administration.
What to watch: Distrust of takeovers could intensify amid conservative-led states pushing to limit discussions about racism in schools.
- Before the Houston takeover, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that critics said promoted a sanitized version of Texas history in schools while downplaying its role in protecting slavery.
Subscribe to Axios Latino to get vital news about Latinos and Latin America, delivered to your inbox on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
